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Introduction: Public attitudes towards stuttering have been shown to reflect negative stereotypes and stigma around the world, and especially so in several Middle Eastern studies. Nevertheless, att...

Purpose Stuttering is a multifactorial speech disorder with significant social and psychological consequences. There is a lack of knowledge about public attitudes towards people who stutter (PWS) and the factors that can determine such attitudes in underprivileged communities. This study aimed to assess the public attitudes in South Egypt towards PWS and compare our results with those stored in a reference database representing 180 different samples. Methods A multi-stage random sampling approach was used to recruit 650 people from Beni-Suef City in South Egypt. All participants were interviewed using the Arabic version of the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S) after getting their informed consent. This instrument assesses people’s Beliefs and Self Reactions towards PWS in addition to their sociodemographic characteristics. Results The Beliefs and Self Reactions subscores in addition to the Overall Stuttering Score of the Egyptian sample were remarkably lower than the median values of the reference database (12 versus 34), (-4 versus 2), and (4 versus 18), respectively. TV, radio, and films were the main sources of knowledge about stuttering. Egyptian participants who reported average to high income were more likely to have a positive attitude (≥50% of Overall Stuttering Score) towards PWS than their counterparts with low income (Odds Ratio = 1.57, 95% Confidence Interval: 1.08–2.28). Conclusion People in South Egypt showed a less positive attitude towards PWS compared with other populations worldwide. Further studies should focus on changing the public attitudes towards PWS through awareness programs that consider the cultural perspectives of the society.

배경 및 목적: 본 연구는 요르단과학기술대학교(JUST)에서 의사소통장애(CSD)를 전공하는 1-4학년 학생들을 대상으로, 이들의 말더듬 및 말더듬는 사람(PWS)에 대한 태도를 살펴보았다. 방법: JUST에서 CSD를 전공하는 1-4학년 학생들이 본 연구에 참여하였다. 표준화 검사도구인 POSHA-S의 아랍어판을 이용하여 각 학년의 말더듬 태도를...