RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Perceived stigma and quality of life in Parkinson’s disease with additional health conditions
JF General Psychiatry
JO Gen Psych
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP e100653
DO 10.1136/gpsych-2021-100653
VO 35
IS 3
A1 Samia S Islam
A1 Sandy Neargarder
A1 Shraddha B Kinger
A1 Joshua T Fox-Fuller
A1 Robert D Salazar
A1 Alice Cronin-Golomb
YR 2022
UL http://gpsych.bmj.com/content/35/3/e100653.abstract
AB 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.Data are available on reasonable request to the corresponding author, subsequent to publication of data from the larger project.