Perceived stigma of COVID-19 patients in Shanghai, China, in the third year of the pandemic: a cross-sectional social impact survey

Introduction: Social stigma associated with Covid-19 infection has been reported around the world. This paper investigates the level of self-reported perceived stigma among people infected with COVID-19 in Shanghai, China, in the third year of the pandemic to determine changes in perceived stigma and individual level variables associated with perceived stigma.

Methods: We conducted a self-reported two-part online survey (n = 144 responses) by employing a convenience sampling method of COVID-19 patients in Shanghai. The first part of the survey collects sociodemographic information of the respondents and the second part outlines 24 items of the Social Impact Scale (SIS), which measures individual level factors associated with stigma, namely social rejection, financial insecurity, internalized shame, and social isolation. We ran Wilcoxon signed-ranks test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and linear regression analysis to assess the levels of perceived stigma differences.

Results: The study finds that the overall level of self-reported stigma during the COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai in 2022 was at a lower level than that compared to the self-reported perceived stigma study in Wuhan in 2020. In Shanghai, the severity of the disease and hospitalization length had most impact on financial insecurity and feelings of social isolation. These experiences were not gendered. Recovery measures, including economic considerations, need to pay particular attention to those who experienced severe disease.