Development of persistent somatic symptom stigma scale
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The development and measurement properties of a new scale to measure persistent somatic symptom related stigma among healthcare professionals: The Persistent Somatic Symptoms Stigma Scale for Healthcare Professionals (PSSS-HCP).
IRAS ID
322144
Contact name
Jon Stone
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 31 days
Research summary
Persistent somatic symptoms (PSS) describe recurrent or continuously occurring symptoms such as fatigue, dizziness, or pain that cannot be fully attributed to a somatic disease. Many patients with PSS face stigmatising attitudes and behaviours from the general public, family and friends, as well as from healthcare professionals. Stigmatisation of patients by healthcare professionals is known to reinforce feelings of rejection and act as a barrier to care seeking and treatment engagement. For these reasons, challenging PSS related stigma among healthcare professionals is increasingly a priority in research and clinical practice.
A first step in this process is to assess the levels of stigma towards patients with PSS by healthcare professionals. Valid, reliable and responsive measurement of stigma is needed to understand its prevalence and severity, but also to design effective interventions against stigma and evaluate their effectiveness.
In a recent systematic review (submitted), we found that existing questionnaires were poorly developed and had insufficient content validity relating to stigma. We found that there was no best candidate instrument to recommend for use in further studies. The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable instrument to measure stigma among healthcare professionals (the PSSS-HCP) and determine its measurement properties.
This will be done in two stages. First, we will conduct cognitive interviews with healthcare professionals and a small number of patients to develop the items of a questionnaire. Second, we will test the questionnaire among healthcare professionals to understand its measurement properties.
REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/SC/0473
Date of REC Opinion
16 Jan 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion