Mental illness stigma as a moderator in the relationship between religiosity and help-seeking attitudes among Muslims from 16 Arab countries

BMC Public Health

Research

Samir Adawi¹  Juliann Saquib²  Nazmus Saquib²  Abdallah Y. Naser³  Eqbal Radwan⁴  Manal Badrasawi⁵  Maan Saleh⁶  Aisha Motwakil Bakhiet⁷  Mariapaola Barbato⁸  Hanaa Ahmed Mohamed Shuwiekh⁹  Amthal Alhuwailah^1,10  Sanad Haider^1,11  Btissame Zarrouq^1,12  Feten Fekih-Romdhane^1,13  Manel Stambouli^1,13  Majda Cheour^1,13  Alexandre Andrade Loch^1,14  Cheikh Mohamed Fadel Mohamed Lemine^1,15  Mirna Fawaz^1,16  Najat Sayem Khalil^1,17  Mai Helmy^1,18  Souheil Hallit^1,19  Suhad Daher-Nashif^2,20  Ayman Hamdan-Mansour^2,21  Fatheya Grein^2,22  Sahar Obeid^2,23  Lahmer Miloud^2,24 

[1] College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Behavioural Medicine, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman;College of Medicine, Clinical Sciences Department, Sulaiman AlRajhi University, Bukariyah, Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia;Department of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Isra University, Amman, Jordan;Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza Strip, Palestine;Department of Nutrition and Food Technology, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine;Department of Psychiatry Khobar, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, KSA, Saudi Arabia;Department of Psychiatry, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan;Department of Psychology, College of Natural and Health Sciences, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE;Department of Psychology, Fayoum University, Faiyum, Egypt;Department of Psychology, Kuwait University, Kuwait, Kuwait;Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Behavioral Sciences Dep. A, Aden, Yemen;Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Laboratory of Epidemiology and Research in Health Sciences, Fez, Morocco;Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, Tunis El Manar University, Tunis, Tunisia;Department of Psychiatry Ibn OmraneThe Tunisian Center of Early Intervention in Psychosis, Razi Hospital, Tunis, Tunisia;Laboratorio de Neurociencias (LIM 27), Faculdade de Medicina, Instituto de Psiquiatria, Hospital das Clinicas HCFMUSP, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, SP, BR, Brazil;Instituto Nacional de Biomarcadores Em Neuropsiquiatria (INBION), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico E Tecnológico, Sao Paulo, Brazil;Ministry of Health, Ministry of Health, Nouakchott, Mauritania;Nursing Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Beirut Arab University, Beirut, Lebanon;Psychology Department, Sanaa University, Sanaa, Yemen;Psychology department, College of Education, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman;Psychology department, Faculty of Arts, Menoufia University, Menofia Governorate, Egypt;School of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), P.O. Box 446, Jounieh, Lebanon;Research and Psychiatry Departments, Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross, Jal Eddib, Lebanon;Applied Science Research Center, Applied Science Private University, Amman, Jordan;School of Medicine, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, UK;College of Medicine, QU Health, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar;School of Nursing, the University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan;Sebha Psychiatry Center, Sebha, Libya;Social and Education Sciences Department, School of Arts and Sciences, Lebanese American University, Byblos, Lebanon;The National Centre of Research in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Oran, Algeria;

关键词: Stigma;    Help-seeking attitudes;    Mental illness;    Religiosity;    Islam;    Arab countries;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-023-16622-7

 received in 2023-02-18, accepted in 2023-08-25,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDetermining the potential barriers responsible for delaying access to care, and elucidating pathways to early intervention should be a priority, especially in Arab countries where mental health resources are limited. To the best of our knowledge, no previous studies have examined the relationship between religiosity, stigma and help-seeking in an Arab Muslim cultural background. Hence, we propose in the present study to test the moderating role of stigma toward mental illness in the relationship between religiosity and help-seeking attitudes among Muslim community people living in different Arab countries.MethodThe current survey is part of a large-scale multinational collaborative project (StIgma of Mental Problems in Arab CounTries [The IMPACT Project]). We carried-out a web-based cross-sectional, and multi-country study between June and November 2021. The final sample comprised 9782 Arab Muslim participants (mean age 29.67 ± 10.80 years, 77.1% females).ResultsBivariate analyses showed that less stigmatizing attitudes toward mental illness and higher religiosity levels were significantly associated with more favorable help-seeking attitudes. Moderation analyses revealed that the interaction religiosity by mental illness stigma was significantly associated with help-seeking attitudes (Beta = .005; p < .001); at low and moderate levels of stigma, higher religiosity was significantly associated with more favorable help-seeking attitudes.ConclusionOur findings preliminarily suggest that mental illness stigma is a modifiable individual factor that seems to strengthen the direct positive effect of religiosity on help-seeking attitudes. This provides potential insights on possible anti-stigma interventions that might help overcome reluctance to counseling in highly religious Arab Muslim communities.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2023

【 图 表 】

Fig. 6