Clinical and Translational Research
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 21, 2021; 27(39): 6647-6658
Published online Oct 21, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i39.6647
Validation of the Italian translation of the perceived stigma scale and resilience assessment in inflammatory bowel disease patients
Sara Cococcia, Marco Vincenzo Lenti, Caterina Mengoli, Catherine Klersy, Federica Borrelli de Andreis, Matteo Secco, Jihane Ghorayeb, Mariangela Delliponti, Gino Roberto Corazza, Antonio Di Sabatino
Sara Cococcia, Marco Vincenzo Lenti, Caterina Mengoli, Federica Borrelli de Andreis, Matteo Secco, Mariangela Delliponti, Gino Roberto Corazza, Antonio Di Sabatino, First Department of Internal Medicine, San Matteo Hospital Foundation, University of Pavia, Pavia 27100, Lombardia, Italy
Catherine Klersy, Service of Biometry & Statistics, Foundation IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia 27100, Lombardia, Italy
Jihane Ghorayeb, Psychology, Zayed University, Dubai 00000, United Arab Emirates
Author contributions: All authors significantly participated in the drafting of the manuscript or critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content and provided approval of the final submitted version. Individual contributions are as follows: Lenti MV and Cococcia S designed and coordinated the study, enrolled subjects, interpreted data, and wrote the manuscript; Klersy C designed the study, did statistical analyses, and reviewed the manuscript; Ghorayeb J interpreted data and critically reviewed the manuscript; Di Sabatino A and Corazza GR reviewed the paper and made final critical revision for important intellectual content; All other authors enrolled patients and collected and analyzed data.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the local Ethics Committee (Protocol Number 20190003611). The study protocol conforms to the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki as reflected in a priori approval by the institution's human research committee.
Informed consent statement: All participants gave their informed written consent to take part to the study and for the anonymized publication of data.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors of this manuscript having no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: There is no additional data available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Marco Vincenzo Lenti, MD, Academic Research, Doctor, Research Assistant Professor, Research Scientist, First Department of Internal Medicine, San Matteo Hospital Foundation, University of Pavia, Viale Camillo Golgi, 19, Pavia 27100, Lombardia, Italy. marco.lenti@unipv.it
Received: February 14, 2021
Peer-review started: February 14, 2021
First decision: March 14, 2021
Revised: March 21, 2021
Accepted: October 11, 2021
Article in press: October 11, 2021
Published online: October 21, 2021
Processing time: 247 Days and 17.2 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Stigmatization is the separation of an individual from a group due to aspects that make them different. Resilience may in turn influence the perception of stigma. Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are susceptible to stigma, although data are very limited.

AIM

To validate an Italian translation of the IBD perceived stigma scale (PSS) in relation to patients’ resilience.

METHODS

Consecutive IBD outpatients were prospectively enrolled (December 2018-September 2019) in an Italian, tertiary referral, IBD center. Clinical and demographic data were collected. Stigma and resilience were evaluated through the IBD-PSS and the 25-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, respectively. The International Quality of Life Assessment Project approach was followed to translate the IBD-PSS into Italian and to establish data quality. Higher scores represent greater perceived stigma and resilience. Multivariable analysis for factors associated with greater stigma was computed.

RESULTS

Overall, 126 IBD patients (mean age 46.1 ± 16.9) were enrolled. The International Quality of Life Assessment criteria for acceptable psychometric properties of the scale were satisfied, with optimal data completeness. There was no ceiling effect, whilst floor effect was present (7.1%). The discriminant validity and the internal consistency reliability were good (Cronbach alpha = 0.87). The overall internal consistency was 95%, and the test-retest reliability was excellent 0.996. The median PSS score was 0.45 (0.20-0.85). Resilience negatively correlated with perceived stigma (Spearman’s correlation = -0.18, 95% confidence intervals: -0.42-0.08, P = 0.03).

CONCLUSION

We herein validated the Italian translation of the PSS scale, also demonstrating that resilience negatively impacts perceived stigma.

Keywords: Crohn’s disease; Quality of life; Stress; Ulcerative colitis

Core Tip: We have here validated an Italian version of the Perceived Stigma Scale for patients with inflammatory bowel disease. We have also found that resilience levels negatively correlated with perceived stigma. This is the first study assessing this issue in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.