Mpox stigma among men who have sex with men in the Netherlands:
Underlying beliefs and comparisons across other commonly stigmatized
infections
Abstract
People with mpox are likely to be stigmatized because of analogies to
other sexually transmitted infections. Stigma is driven by beliefs about
the perceived severity of the condition and perceived responsibility for
acquiring the condition, both in broader society and individual
responsibility. We explored these beliefs and compared them across mpox,
HIV, syphilis, gonorrhoea, and chlamydia in an online survey, conducted
in July, 2022, with 394 men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) in the
Netherlands. We compared mean scores between infections using repeated
measures ANOVA and conducted hierarchical regression analyses to
identify determinants of both mpox perceived responsibility endpoints.
Results showed that participants expected that mpox would be seen as a
‘gay disease’ and will be used to blame gay men. Compared to other
infections, mpox was considered less severe than HIV, but more severe
than syphilis, gonorrhoea, and chlamydia. Perceived responsibility was
comparable across infections, but, for each infection, participants
perceived attributed responsibility for infection to be higher in
society than individual responsibility. Both perceived responsibility
endpoints were highly correlated with each other and with other stigma
beliefs. These results provide insight on the underlying determinants of
mpox stigma, and demonstrate that mpox stigma is present in the
Netherlands.