Challenging mental illness stigma in healthcare professionals and students: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

Objective Stigma among healthcare professionals may lead to poor quality of healthcare services for patients with mental illness. This study conducts a network meta-analysis to estimate the relative efficacy between different types of anti-stigma interventions for healthcare professionals. Design Network meta-analysis. Main Outcome Measures The attitudes and behavior intension of healthcare professionals toward mental illness. Results A total of 18 studies (22 trials) from 9 countries are included in the analysis. In the network meta-analysis, rank probabilities show interventions with indirect contact plus lecture (SUCRA = 81.5%), direct contact plus problem-based learning workshop (SUCRA = 77.4%), and indirect contact (SUCRA = 72.2%) having the highest probability of being ranked first, second, and third, respectively. Conclusion Our findings suggest that education combining social contact is the most effective anti-stigma intervention, which can be implemented in clinical practices to help reduce this stigma and improve healthcare services for patients with mental illness.