A Scoping Review of Questionnaires on Stigma of Mental Illness in Persian

Objectives In order to plan according to the needs of psychiatric patients, there is a need to study different aspects of social stigma in target groups. Due to the limited access to questionnaires used for assessment of social stigma in Persian, this study aims to review all of the tools available for assessment of social stigma, which have been designed in Iran or have been translated to Persian. Methods This is a conceptual review study. After extensive review of resources, articles related to social stigma in the health system and conducted on health care staff, students, caregivers or patients' families, psychiatric patients, mothers with children with autism, mothers with children with Down syndrome, and the general population were included in the study. We extracted the information of Persian questionnaires used in the reviewed articles. The questionnaires and additional information were collected by contacting the authors of the articles via E-mail. Results There were 21 questionnaires for assessing social stigma in Persian language. Of these, 19 questionnaires could be accessed and analyzed. Most of the questionnaires were the translated version of other tools, and only 4 questionnaires had been developed and validated in Persian. Conclusion Most of the questionnaires in Persian are used to measure social stigma in health care staff and students followed by caregivers or patients' families. There is limited number of questionnaires for the assessment of social stigma in general population and patients. This is in contrast to the other languages that have mainly focused on assessment of stigma in general population and patients. To date, no questionnaire in Persian exists for the assessment of social stigma in children and adolescents.