[01] Wong Heng Kit, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Academy of Higher Education), Muar, Malaysia. [02] Savvethaa Ambigapathy, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Academy of Higher Education), Muar, Malaysia. [03] Dayang Puteri Nur Raihanah Bt Syed Nazrul, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Academy of Higher Education), Muar, Malaysia. [04] Shomesh Tamilselvan, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Academy of Higher Education), Muar, Malaysia.

Stigma towards mental-illness remains a major problem towards individuals with mental illness as it is more stigmatised than other health-conditions. Stigma mainly consists of three core elements: knowledge (misinformation/differences in understanding due to culture or religion), attitudes (prejudice) and behaviour (discrimination). We conducted a randomized controlled trial that aims to find out the effectiveness of video intervention in reducing the stigma of mental illness among the medical students of Melaka Manipal Medical College (MMMC), Muar Campus, Muar, Johor, Malaysia. The eligible participants were randomized using block randomization and were separated into a control group and an intervention group. Both groups were given an article that highlights the struggle of being a person diagnosed with depression (a mental illness). However, only the intervention group was exposed to the video on stigma reduction for a total of 15 minutes. A OMH-SC questionnaire was used to measure stigma towards mental illness. This study showed that there is no significant difference in total test score between the participants that underwent article reading alone (mean= 31.55) and those that underwent article reading and video-based learning (mean= 31.00). But, when compared before and after intervention, the total mean stigma score is reduced from mean of 36.00 to mean of 31.00. Similarly, in the control, the total mean stigma score is reduced from mean of 35.15 to mean of 31.55. Our study concludes that there is significant efficiency in reducing stigma towards mental health by reading an article and watching a video about mental health stigma and ways to reduce them.

Stigma, Mental Health, Attitude, Perception, Randomized Controlled Trial

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