Open AccessPublic attitudes towards people who stutter in South Egypt
Author(s) -
Ahmed Arafa,
Shaimaa Senosy,
Haytham A. Sheerah,
Kenneth O. St. Louis
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0245673
Subject(s) - stuttering , public opinion , confidence interval , odds ratio , arabic , public health , focus group , psychology , medicine , demography , developmental psychology , politics , sociology , political science , linguistics , philosophy , pathology , anthropology , law , nursing
Purpose Stuttering is a multifactorial speech disorder with significant social and psychological consequences. There is a lack of knowledge about public attitudes towards people who stutter (PWS) and the factors that can determine such attitudes in underprivileged communities. This study aimed to assess the public attitudes in South Egypt towards PWS and compare our results with those stored in a reference database representing 180 different samples. Methods A multi-stage random sampling approach was used to recruit 650 people from Beni-Suef City in South Egypt. All participants were interviewed using the Arabic version of the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S) after getting their informed consent. This instrument assesses people’s Beliefs and Self Reactions towards PWS in addition to their sociodemographic characteristics. Results The Beliefs and Self Reactions subscores in addition to the Overall Stuttering Score of the Egyptian sample were remarkably lower than the median values of the reference database (12 versus 34), (-4 versus 2), and (4 versus 18), respectively. TV, radio, and films were the main sources of knowledge about stuttering. Egyptian participants who reported average to high income were more likely to have a positive attitude (≥50% of Overall Stuttering Score) towards PWS than their counterparts with low income (Odds Ratio = 1.57, 95% Confidence Interval: 1.08–2.28). Conclusion People in South Egypt showed a less positive attitude towards PWS compared with other populations worldwide. Further studies should focus on changing the public attitudes towards PWS through awareness programs that consider the cultural perspectives of the society.