Risk of COVID-19-related bullying, harassment and stigma among healthcare workers: an analytical cross-sectional global study

BMJ Open. 2020 Dec 30;10(12):e046620. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046620.

Abstract

Objectives: Essential healthcare workers (HCW) uniquely serve as both COVID-19 healers and, potentially, as carriers of SARS-CoV-2. We assessed COVID-19-related stigma and bullying against HCW controlling for social, psychological, medical and community variables.

Design: We nested an analytical cross-sectional study of COVID-19-related stigma and bullying among HCW within a larger mixed-methods effort assessing COVID-19-related lived experience and impact. Adjusted OR (aOR) and 95% CIs evaluated the association between working in healthcare settings and experience of COVID-19-related bullying and stigma, controlling for confounders. Thematic qualitative analysis provided insight into lived experience of COVID-19-related bullying.

Setting: We recruited potential participants in four languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian) through Amazon Mechanical Turk's online workforce and Facebook.

Participants: Our sample included 7411 people from 173 countries who were aged 18 years or over.

Findings: HCW significantly experienced more COVID-19-related bullying after controlling for the confounding effects of job-related, personal, geographic and sociocultural variables (aOR: 1.5; 95% CI 1.2 to 2.0). HCW more frequently believed that people gossip about others with COVID-19 (OR: 2.2; 95% CI 1.9 to 2.6) and that people with COVID-19 lose respect in the community (OR: 2.3; 95% CI 2.0 to 2.7), both which elevate bullying risk (OR: 2.7; 95% CI 2.3 to 3.2, and OR: 3.5; 95% CI 2.9 to 4.2, respectively). The lived experience of COVID-19-related bullying relates frequently to public identities as HCW traverse through the community, intersecting with other domains (eg, police, racism, violence).

Interpretation: After controlling for a range of confounding factors, HCW are significantly more likely to experience COVID-19-related stigma and bullying, often in the intersectional context of racism, violence and police involvement in community settings.

Keywords: COVID-19; epidemiology; public health.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Bullying* / prevention & control
  • Bullying* / psychology
  • Bullying* / statistics & numerical data
  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • COVID-19* / prevention & control
  • COVID-19* / psychology
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Female
  • Global Health
  • Health Personnel* / psychology
  • Health Personnel* / statistics & numerical data
  • Humans
  • Internationality
  • Male
  • Occupational Stress / epidemiology*
  • Racism* / prevention & control
  • Racism* / statistics & numerical data
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Social Stigma*
  • Violence* / legislation & jurisprudence
  • Violence* / statistics & numerical data