Qualitative assessment of courtesy stigma on family members with TB diagnosed in Cebu, Philippines

• Main Author: Alterado, Axell M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2013
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/4430
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study characterizes the courtesy stigma experience of family members with TB diagnosed kin by describing the correctness of their knowledge on TB, examining their perception on how others view them, investigating their experiences, and evaluating their personal assessment on the presence or absence of stigma and discrimination. In-depth interviews from sixteen (16) purposively selected family members were conducted in Cebu City, Philippines. It was found that TB still is recognized as a contagious, dangerous, and feared disease. Knowledge on the causes and modes of transmission is largely incorrect attributing smoking, drinking, and stress to the cause of TB and citing sharing eating utensils and inheritance as the mechanisms of transmission. Family members, by large, perceive being regarded as carriers of TB and being partly blamed on the suffering of their sick kin. As a result, feelings of undesirability, shame, and disappointment were reported. Emotional, financial, familial and social relationship related problems were also accounted. Overall personal assessment of family members revealed that they experience stigma although, several coping strategies were noted to have been effectively used such as denial, avoidance, neutralization, acceptance, passing, and maintenance of social distance through selective disclosure. Support for the sick kins healthcare seeking behavior is strong as they undermine the social stigma towards the condition of their kin and focus instead on the wellness of the sick. Forms of care considered to have been given to the sick include facilitating medical necessities, providing nutrition, giving moral and disciplinary support, and substituting missed familial roles. Hence, family members of persons with TB really experience both perceived and enacted courtesy stigma which are shame, contagion, and blame but able to managed effectively, thus no significant problem with care giving and support.