Internalized stigma and associated factors among people with mental illness at University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest, Ethiopia, 2021

BACKGROUND: Internalized stigma has been found to be high among people with mental illness (PWMI) and it results in poor treatment outcome, increased disability and high economic burden. So, this study was designed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of high internalized stigma among PWMI attending psychiatric follow-up at University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest, Ethiopia, 2021. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among PWMI (n = 365), and internalized stigma was measured by using internalized stigma of mental illness 29 (ISMI-29) scale. The data was entered in to EPI DATA software (4.6.0.2) and analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20. A binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with internalized stigma and reported with 95% confidence interval (CI). P-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: The prevalence of high internalized stigma was found to be 27.9% (95% CI 23.1–32.6). A male gender (AOR = 0.332; 95% CI 0.175–0.629), occupation, specifically government employee (AOR = 0.309; 95% CI 0.118–0.809), life time substance use (AOR = 3.561; 95% CI 1.867–6.793), low self-esteem (AOR = 8.313; 95% CI 3.641–18.977), and history of hospitalization (AOR = 4.236; 95% CI 1.875, 9.570) were factors significantly associated with higher internalized stigma. CONCLUSION: The result of this study showed that there was an intermediate prevalence of high internalized stigma among PWMI at University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. The hospital needs to take immediate action to fight internalized stigma by focusing on females, people with low self-esteem, individuals with history of lifetime substance use, and people who have history of hospital admission. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13033-022-00567-2.