Effects of stigmatisation on psychosocial and health wellbeing of people living with albinism in south-west Nigeria

Abstract

People living with Albinism (PLWA), often referred to as Albinos are seen as very special people in many parts of Africa because of the colour of their skin and eye. Sunlight often exposes them to vision problems, sunburns and skin cancers. Albinism, a group of medical conditions arising from recessive genetic mutation causes the deficiency of a pigment known as melanin. Albinism is considered a disability and sufferers are often stigmatized. Descriptive research design was adopted using purposive sampling method to select 73 Albinos in Lagos, Nigeria. A self-structured questionnaire tagged (ESPHWPLWA) with a reliability coefficient of 0.82 was used as instrument for data collections. Analysis was done through descriptive statistics of frequency count and percentages and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Hypotheses were tested at 0.05alpha level. Result showed a significant relationship between stigmatization and psychological well-being of albinos (N = 73, r = 0.00, p-value (1.00, > 0.05). However, the result revealed that stigmatization does not affect social well-being (N = 73, r = 0.86, p-value (0.02) < 0.05); and health wellbeing (N = 73, r = 0.79, p-value (-0.03) < 0.05) of albinos. It was concluded that stigmatization demoralises and devalues PLWA. The study recommends that ritual killings and stigmatization of PLWA must stop as a matter of urgency.

Keywords: albinism, stigmatisation, health, psychosocial well-being