Abstract:
Background: - Mental illness is an important determinant of quality of life of individuals. The
stigma associated with mental illness can potentially be a reason for lower quality of life among
people with mental illness. However, only few studies are available on the effect of stigma on
quality of life of people with mental illness in Ethiopia.
Objective: - To determine the association between stigma and quality of life among people with
mental illness.
Methods: Facility based cross-sectional study design was employed. The data were collected by
using an interviewer administered questionnaire on a total of 422 psychiatric outpatients. Quality
of life was measured using quality of life assessment tool Short Form, Version -2 (SF-36) while
self-stigma was measured using Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness(ISMI)Scale which was
validated and used in many other similar settings. Study participants were drawn using
consecutive sampling method. Data analysis was done by using SPSS version -20. Multiple
linear regression was used to test the association between stigma & quality of life, and to control
for potential confounders, P-value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Result: The prevalence of self-stigma was 26.1%. Regarding QoL of people with mental illness,
50.1% were experiencing lower QoL. As stigma increases by one unit in studied participants of
PWMI, quality of life of them decreases by 2.5%.but this association is not significant.( β1=-
0.025,95% C.I :-0.085,0.035). In this study self-stigma and QoL were inversely correlated (r=-
0.032) which indicates stigma worsen QoL of people with mental illness.
Conclusion and Recommendation: The results of the this study revealed that, the studied
participants had apparently high feeling of self-stigma regarding mental illness associated with
lower quality of life. This finding used as the screening internalized stigma by empowering
people with mental illness regarding internalized stigma . Over a quarter of persons with mental
illness on treatment suffer from low quality of life. This also intern result in improved quality of
life among people with mental illness which could be done at clinic by clinician counselors and
clinical psychologists by health education, counseling and psycho education
