Development and Validation of Coronavirus Disease 2019-Induced Perceived Stigmatization in Physicians Scale.

Background: It is well-established that healthcare professionals are stigmatized by the society during infectious disease outbreaks. The present study aimed to develop a scale to measure the coronavirus disease 2019-induced perceived stigmatization in physicians and investigate its validity and reliability.

Methods: The present methodological type of study was carried out with 303 physicians working with a university hospital. The researchers drafted a 5-point Likert-type "Coronavirus Disease 2019-Induced Perceived Stigmatization in Physicians Scale" by using an item pool consisting of 35 items upon a review of the relevant literature. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient), item-total correlation coefficient, and test-retest analyses were used to assess the reliability of the scale. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed with an aim to evaluate the construct validity of the scale.

Results: The scale consisted of 10 items and 2 domains (environmental perceived stigmatization and personally perceived stigmatization) upon completion of the scale development step. The items on the scale explained 61.66% of the total variance, where the factor loads were between 0.66 and 0.85. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the scale was 0.88, and the item-total correlation coefficients were all above 0.3. As a result of confirmatory factor analysis, the resultant model had goodness-of-fit indices with sufficient fit.

Conclusion: The Coronavirus Disease 2019-Induced Perceived Stigmatization in Physicians Scale was a reliable and valid tool for the physicians.