Stigma, discrimination, and attitude towards the Chinese community in the USA and Canada during the outbreak of COVID-19 (original) (raw)

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak, declared a global pandemic by the WHO, raises some serious health, as well as discrimination concerns worldwide. This exploratory study outlines the knowledge, stigma, and discrimination of people towards the Chinese community in the USA and Canada at the onset of the pandemic. Methods: An online community-based, opt-in descriptive survey was conducted from the 20 th of February 2020 through the 13 th of March 2020. The study collected data with anonymity about demographics, travel history, COVID-19 knowledge, awareness, as well as stigmatization and discrimination against the Chinese community. Data was compiled with excel using descriptive statistics and Chi-square for the analysis. Results: Among the total participants (n=172), the highest number of responses came from the 21 to 30-year-old age group and the 31 to 40-year-old age group, at 82/172 (47.7%) and 50/172 (29.1%) respectively. The study also indicates that more females responded than males with 110/172 (64%) of the study respondents being females. In addition, 148/172 (86%) of respondents (χ 2 = 0.0002; P=0.99) knew how COVID-19 can spread from one person to another as well as how to avoid getting the infection 123/172 (71.5%) (χ 2 =0.6109; P=0.43). There was some reported stigma against the Chinese community in the study, particularly during the early days of the outbreak when it was still contained within the Chinese borders; 11/172 (6.4%) participants (χ 2 =1.1137; P=0.30) indicated that only Chinese infected COVID-19 individuals need to be quarantined with 23/172 (13.4%) avoiding only the Chinese community(χ 2 =1.2496; P=0.26); which demonstrates the lack of information and protocol available to the public at the time, as well as a general lack of understanding of COVID-19 by the general public. Furthermore, 52/172 (30%) of the respondents (χ 2 =6.1969; P=0.013) blamed people from China for the COVID-19 outbreak; while 23/172 (13%) people (χ 2 =1.2496; P=0.26) said they would avoid Chinese people and/or their communities. The level of knowledge, stigma, and discrimination with the respondent's socio-demographic characteristics was compared as well. Results from the study suggest that those who live in urban settings, who are married and hold university degrees have a better understanding of the infection, knowledge of how it spreads, and also are less likely to discriminate against the Chinese community or blame the Chinese from China for COVID-19.