Comparison of the perceived stigmatization measures between the general population and burn survivors in Brazil.

Objectives: To compare perceived stigmatization, symptoms of depression and self-esteem of adults from Brazilian general population with Brazilian burns survivors and to verify the possible correlations between these populations.

Method: The general population and burn survivors administered the adapted Brazilian versions of the Perceived Stigmatization Questionnaire (BR-PSQ-R), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). The Student's t-test for independent samples was employed to identify significant differences between the means of the results from the BR-PSQ-R, BDI and RSES instruments, and the Pearson correlation was used to detect correlations between constructs. The significance level was set at 0.05.

Results: Participants of this study included: 102 individuals from the general population and 240 burn survivors. The difference between the BR-PSQ-R mean scores of the two groups was not statistically significant (p = 0.077). The mean scores for the BDI (p = 0.001) and RSES (p = 0.001) where found to be lower in the general population, when compared to burn survivors. Moderate correlations were identified between the perceived stigmatization and depression (r = 0.43; p < 0.001) and perceived stigmatization and self-esteem (r = -0.35; p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Participants from the general population and burn survivors exhibit similar levels of perception of stigmatization; the general population presented fewer symptoms of depression and a higher self-esteem when compared to burn survivors.