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. 2022 Jun 22;35(3):e100653.
doi: 10.1136/gpsych-2021-100653. eCollection 2022.

Perceived stigma and quality of life in Parkinson's disease with additional health conditions

Samia S Islam  1 , Sandy Neargarder  1   2 , Shraddha B Kinger  1 , Joshua T Fox-Fuller  1 , Robert D Salazar  1 , Alice Cronin-Golomb  1
Affiliations

Perceived stigma and quality of life in Parkinson's disease with additional health conditions

Samia S Islam et al. Gen Psychiatr. .

Abstract

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with perceived stigma and affects quality of life (QoL). Additional health conditions may influence these consequences of PD.

Aims: This study assessed the impact of health conditions on perceived stigma and QoL in persons with PD. We hypothesised that individuals with more health conditions would report more stigma and poorer QoL. We also examined the contributions of demographic and clinical characteristics to the correlations between health conditions and perceived stigma/QoL.

Methods: We identified 196 eligible participants from the Boston University Online Survey Study of Parkinson's Disease and examined their health history, performance on multiple stigma measures, and scores on the 39-item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire assessing QoL.

Results: At least one health condition was reported by 79% of the sample, with a median of 2 and a range of 0-7 health conditions. More perceived stigma and poorer QoL were associated with thyroid disease, depression, anxiety, and the total number of health conditions. These correlations were related to younger age, less education, and earlier disease onset. Other health conditions (high blood pressure, back/leg surgery, headache, cancer/tumours, and heart disease) were not significantly correlated with stigma or QoL.

Conclusions: Having more health conditions, or thyroid disease, depression, or anxiety, was associated with more perceived stigma and poorer QoL, with younger age, less education, and earlier disease onset affecting the associations. It is important to consider the burden of health conditions and how they affect persons with PD with specific clinical characteristics.

Keywords: Depression; Psychiatry.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: SSI was a student at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts; Columbia University, New York, New York; and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois. SN was employed at Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. SBK was a student at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts. JTF was a student at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts. He was funded on NIA research grant 1 F31AG062158. RDS was employed at Tewksbury Hospital, Tewksbury, Massachusetts.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study flowchart. BOSS-PD, Boston University Online Survey Study of Parkinson’s Disease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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