Table 1.
Characteristics of the study participants
| Anticipated stigma | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| High | Low | pc | |
| n=1,084 | n=545 | ||
| N (%) or Mean (± SD) | N (%) or Mean (± SD) | ||
| Sex | |||
| Male | 420 (38.7) | 289 (53.0) | <0.001 |
| Female | 664 (61.3) | 256 (47.0) | |
| Age, years | 48.1 (± 7.0) | 49.3 (± 7.2) | 0.001 |
| Education | |||
| Lower than university degree | 610 (56.6) | 262 (48.2) | 0.001 |
| University degree or higher | 468 (43.4) | 282 (51.8) | |
| Work status | |||
| Employed | 952 (87.9) | 482 (89.0) | 0.545 |
| Unemployed | 131 (12.1) | 60 (11.1) | |
| Cohabitation status | |||
| Living with others | 919 (91.7) | 450 (88.8) | 0.061 |
| Living alone | 83 (8.3) | 57 (11.2) | |
| Perceived riska | |||
| High | 676 (62.5) | 270 (49.6) | <0.001 |
| Low | 405 (37.5) | 274 (50.4) | |
| Comorbidity status susceptible to stigmatizationa | |||
| Yes | 194 (18.0) | 75 (13.8) | 0.034 |
| No | 890 (82.1) | 470 (86.2) | |
| Diabetes mellitus | |||
| Yes | 43 (4.0) | 13 (2.4) | 0.098 |
| No | 1,041 (96.0) | 532 (97.6) | |
| Psychiatric disorder | |||
| Yes | 66 (6.1) | 32 (5.9) | 0.862 |
| No | 1,018 (93.9) | 513 (94.1) | |
| Arthritis/rheumatoid arthritis | |||
| Yes | 42 (3.9) | 17 (3.1) | 0.441 |
| No | 1,042 (96.1) | 528 (96.9) | |
| Chronic respiratory disease | |||
| Yes | 63 (5.8) | 25 (4.6) | 0.302 |
| No | 1,021 (94.2) | 520 (95.4) | |
| Strong normative beliefsb | 18.3 (± 4.7) | 16.9 (± 4.9) | <0.001 |
SD Standard deviation
aCronbach’s alpha: perceived risk (0.82), norm (0.87)
bPossible score ranging from 1 to 5
cStudent’s t-test for continuous variables and Pearson’s chi-squared test for categorical variables.