Prevalence and Factors Responsible for Stigmatization of the Mentally Ill among Student Nurses in North-Eastern Nigeria

Introduction: There is poor knowledge about mental illness, which contributes to stigmatization. The extent of the problem have been studied across cultures and found to be common(Gureje et al, 2005; Adewuya, 2007; Aghukwa, 2010) The impact of the stigma associated with mental illness is negative and pervasive; affecting patients, their family members, health care givers and the wider community. There is a need to determine the extent and factors associated with the tendency to stigmatize the mentally ill among future health care providers such as student nurses, who are potential community health educators. Aim: The study aimed to find the prevalence and the factors associated with stigma due to psychosis among student nurses Methods : It was a comparative cross sectional study of the prevalence of, and factors associated with mental illness stigma among student nurses using the Osgood semantic differential and World Psychiatric Association questionnaire on psychiatric stigma. Results : A total of 126 subjects participated in the study. The average age of the respondents was 23.7 years (SD=3.7), with an intra centre average of 23.0 and 24.6 for the Maiduguri and Damaturu centres respectively. The study demonstrated that in both study groups there was a general negative attitude (78-88.1% thought the mentally ill patients were dangerous; 78-88.5% would not marry people who had mental illness) and relatively good knowledge (29- 36% believed in a magical/ spiritual aetiology of mental disorders) about mental illness. Conclusion : Overall generally high levels of psychiatric stigma exist amongst the students' nurses, with very few socio demographic variables being associated with the levels of stigma