Table 8 Experience of CHB-related stigma concept elicitation—summary of responses and example quotes
CHB-related stigma | No. reporting (N = 24) | Example quotes |
|---|---|---|
Self-stigma: concealment | 14 | “None of my friends really know, none of them. If my partner did– my partner now, he knows, but other than that I don’t tell any of my friends.” “I’m concerned that if– the disease carries a stigma and people don’t really understand it, then they might think that it can be spread. So I don’t tell everyone that I have it.” “Well, I keep it secret. I don’t– there’s only a handful of people who know other than my family. My employer doesn’t know.” |
Self-stigma | 7 | “I would say, and if I feel stigmatized, it’s probably more me thinking about it than someone verbally insults me or people walking away because they think I’ve got something viral.” “I haven’t felt stigmatized by anyone else, but I just, you know, when you think about it yourself then obviously you feel I’ve got this condition, and then you just feel bad.” |
Self-stigma: expect avoidance from others | 7 | “My major worry is really rejection. And I think a lot of people have been naïve or have no idea what it’s all about. And because of that, I’m feeling like I don’t want to be the guy who needs to train people based on what I’ve got. At the initial stage, to convince people to see me as normal and that I’m not going to just pass any disease or anything to them at any time.” “You cannot just go out and make friends because people won’t all understand, and maybe they don’t want to be near or risk anything.” |
Social stigma: misconceptions from others | 7 | “I got publicly humiliated in the workplace, and it made me– a lot of people stopped wanting to work with me because they thought they could just catch it by working with me, just brushing past me and stuff like that.” “How does it make me feel? There’s a thing where I feel like I have to explain myself if it ever comes up to people, and that’s always a really awkward conversation because, again, people immediately think it’s from a, you know, STI thing, that I’ve obtained. So that’s quite embarrassing, if that makes sense.” |
Social stigma: judgment/talked about by others | 5 | “It’s sort of been a roller coaster of mixed emotions. When I did speak out about it, it wasn’t the reception I was expecting, so I kind of got singled out and pretty humiliated by the company I used to work for, and family members from my ex’s family.” “Okay. And have you ever felt judged by others or treated differently because of it?” “Yes, a little bit. There were a couple of times in my life when I have told my partner that, “Oh, look, I have this condition and blah blah blah. We just need to be careful for the time being, and then after on if we are more involved, you can have a vaccine.” But instantly it was, like, he didn’t talk to me, he got really upset, he went to bed, and then the next morning, once he had a bit of time to process the whole thing, he kind of accepted it and apologized and everything, and obviously it wasn’t my fault. But yeah, I just felt a bit weird.” |
Self-stigma: avoidance/withdrawal from social situations with others | 4 | “I know for sure, deep down inside me, that I decided not to have too many friends because I don’t want to have to answer what is my situation to nobody. I kind of reject myself from the outside world. I do my own activities mostly with my partner. We do exercises and live a healthy life. But in terms of relating with other people, I kind of move back a lot in that sense.” |
Self-stigma: feel embarrassed/guilty/ashamed | 3 | “Given the fact I read through the things that could have make it happen, that will have caused hep B, I began to feel slightly ashamed about myself, my condition. I go, “Where did I get this from?” It becomes a tricky situation for me at that time.” |
Social stigma: avoidance by others/exclusion | 3 | Interviewer: What do you think your life would be like if you didn’t have hepatitis B? “People would have more trust and if they know that I am hep B positive, they wouldn’t avoid. They would like to be more friendly with me and wouldn’t be scared of me.” |
Self-stigma: feel dirty/tainted/worthless/useless | 1 | “It makes me feel degraded because I feel like whatever happens, if I– if I’m not with my current– if I– every time I get a new partner, […], I mean, I’ve got to explain to them what I have. And that can put people off, having a relationship with you, because they’re going to feel like, okay, you are contagious. What have you been doing? What else have you got? It doesn’t matter what you tell them.” |
Social stigma: others will not share items/food | 1 | “There’s few friends I’ve told. I thought one or two were– I thought they were– they were good, good, friends, but their perception changed. And when I told them that, go to their household, they came here, they were offered a tea or drink, they would not have it. And when I go to their house, I can see that– I go to their house a few times, I can’t make a cup of tea. Because before, I used to go out and make a cup of tea. I’d feel like, hey, I’ll help myself. But now, I can’t do that [INDISCERNIBLE] restrictions. One thing I realized, which is embarrassing and depressing, was every time I would go there, I was given one single cup, and that’s the cup I was to drink from. Looks like the other company, best I know, they can’t drink from that cup.” |
Structural stigma: denied opportunities | 1 | Interviewer: And have you ever experienced prejudice because of your hepatitis B? “Not where I’m working now, but in my previous job in the [redacted] I had, I was just singled out all the time.” Interviewer: And in what kind of way if it’s not too upsetting to talk about? “Like, all the people who I thought were my friends who I worked with didn’t want to sit with me for lunch or didn’t want to work with me, and just I was overlooked for promotions and stuff.” |