International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | October 2021 | Vol 8 | Issue 10 Page 5029 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Ahlawat S et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2021 Oct;8(10):5029-5035 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article A prospective study to assess the social stigma, perceived stress and psychological distress among security guards during COVID-19 pandemic in All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi Sheenu Ahlawat 1 , Poonam Joshi 1 *, Cecilia Mary Susaimuthu 1 , Prabudh Goel 2 , Rakesh Lodha 3 , Vishesh Jain 2 , Pratap Sharan 4 INTRODUCTION Human civilization has been passing through the serious crossroads of this millennium while its survival is being challenged by the evolution of a new coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), trespassing numerous countries in the entire world like wildfire. 1 The economic slowdown caused by COVID-19 all across the globe has resulted in the loss of jobs on one hand and increased working time, fewer wages, and overqualified employees and part-time jobs on the other hand. 2 The COVID-19 is likely to occur more among the higher- risk groups, such as health care providers and frontline workers, working in various positions in places having public interaction, such as hospitals, banks, police force, armed forces, etc. The security guards, like health care workers posted in various patient care areas, have a high risk of contracting the disease, and stress and distress. 3 ABSTRACT Background: People working in the health sector were being labelled, stereotyped, discriminated against, stigmatized, and treated indifferently in the early phase of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To assess social stigma, perceived stress, and psychological distress among hospital security guards during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A prospective study was conducted among security guards, working in a tertiary care health facility, during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were collected using an online Google form. The stigma, perceived stress, and psychological distress were assessed using standardized tools. Results: The mean age of 280 (males: 219, 78.2%) guards enrolled in the study was 37.13±9.1 years. The mean stigma, stress, and psychological distress scores among security guards were 28.76±11.9, 17.64±6.4, and 4.35±2.8, respectively. A significant correlation was found between perceived stigma and psychological distress (r=0.197, p=0.009) and perceived stress and psychological distress (r=0.302, p=0.001). The predictor of perceived stress among the security guards were gender, [β=1.88; (1.13, 2.63), p=0.001] and loss of job by the family member during pandemic [β=2.8 (4.56, 1.03), p=0.001], similarly the predictors of psychological distress were gender and COVID positive status [β=0.06 (0.10, 0.33), p=0.001]. Conclusions: The majority of the security guards had moderate to high perceived social stigma, and moderate level stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic and a few being psychologically distressed requiring referral to experts. Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, Stigma, Perceived stress, Psychological distress, Security guards 1 College of Nursing, AIIMS New Delhi, India 2 Department of Pediatrics Surgery, 3 Department of Pediatrics Medicine, AIIMS, New Delhi, India 4 Department of Psychiatry, AIIMS, New Delhi, India Received: 27 July 2021 Accepted: 04 September 2021 *Correspondence: Dr. Poonam Joshi, E-mail: pjoshi495@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20213814