Public Knowledge and Attitude towards Vitiligo: A Cross-Sectional Survey in Jordan

Rand Murshidi, Nour Shewaikani (), Assem Al Refaei, Balqis Alfreijat, Buthaina Al-Sabri, Mahmoud Abdallat, Muayyad Murshidi, Tala Khamis, Yasmin Al-Dawoud and Zahraa Alattar
Additional contact information
Rand Murshidi: Department of Dermatology, School of Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
Nour Shewaikani: School of Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
Assem Al Refaei: School of Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
Balqis Alfreijat: School of Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
Buthaina Al-Sabri: School of Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
Mahmoud Abdallat: Department of Neurosurgery, Jordan University Hospital, Amman 11942, Jordan
Muayyad Murshidi: Department of Dermatology, The Jordanian Royal Medical Services, Amman 11942, Jordan
Tala Khamis: School of Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
Yasmin Al-Dawoud: School of Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan
Zahraa Alattar: School of Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: Background: Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease affecting approximately 2% of the world’s population. Besides vitiligo cosmetic issues, patients suffer from psychological comorbidities. This results from the stigmatization they encounter from surrounding individuals. Accordingly, the current study was the first to assess Jordanians’ knowledge and attitude toward vitiligo. Methods: Data collection was completed by an online questionnaire consisting of four sections to capture participants’ sociodemographic characteristics, previous exposure, and knowledge and attitude toward vitiligo. The analysis took place through R and RStudio. Results: Of our 994 surveyed participants, only 8.45% and 12.47% had a low level of vitiligo knowledge and negative total attitude score, respectively. Moreover, independent predictors of positive attitudes included younger age (18–30), high school education or lower, hearing about or living with a vitiligo patient, and higher knowledge scores. The highest prevalence of positive attitudes was observed when physicians were the source of knowledge. Conclusion: Some critical misconceptions were identified despite the Jordanian public having sufficient overall knowledge. Furthermore, higher knowledge reflected a higher prevalence of positive attitudes toward the patients. We recommend that future efforts target the public understanding of the nature of the disease and its being non-communicable. Moreover, we emphasize that medical knowledge should be communicated through qualified healthcare providers.

Keywords: vitiligo; knowledge; attitude; skin disorders (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/12/6183/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/12/6183/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:12:p:6183-:d:1174737

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().