Many individuals with sickle cell disease experience both a poor quality of life and stigma. Individuals with SCD often experience high levels of stigma which can be a barrier to good self-management and hinder quality of life. The purpose of this research is to improve understanding of the relationships between stigma, self-management, and quality of life in SCD in the United States and Jamaica. The findings from this project will contribute to the development of a tool to measure self-management strategies and will also guide the development of interventions to improve SCD self-management.
The goal of the proposed study is to explore the complex relationships between perceived stigma, demographic and clinical characteristics, sickle cell disease (SCD) self-management strategies, and quality of life (QoL) in adults with SCD in the United States (US) and Jamaica, countries with important differences relevant to this study. Proposed is a cross sectional study that will use a convergent parallel mixed methods design (individual interviews and self-report surveys). Participants will be interviewed about SCD self-management strategies and how sources of stigma influence these strategies. Quantitative measures will be used to assess perceived stigma \[SCD Health-Related Stigma Scale (SCD-HRSS)\] and QoL \[Adult Sickle Cell Quality of Life Measures (ASCQ-Me): emotional impact, pain episodes, pain impact, sleep impact, social functioning impact, and stiffness impact; disease severity\]. The primary outcome of the study is stigma and the secondary outcome is QoL(emotional impact, pain episodes, pain impact, sleep impact, social functioning impact, and stiffness impact; disease severity). The specific aims of this study are to: Aim 1: Determine the influences of perceived stigma and demographic and clinical characteristics on SCD self-management and QoL in adults with SCD in the US and Jamaica. Question 1: What are the influences of perceived stigma and demographic and clinical characteristics on SCD self-management? Question 2: What are the influences of perceived stigma and demographic and clinical characteristics on QoL? Aim 2: Describe the relationship between SCD self-management strategies and QoL.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
102
Dominique Bulgin
Durham, North Carolina, United States
Sickle Cell Unit, The University of the West Indies
Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica
Health-Related Stigma
The Sickle Cell Disease Health-Related Stigma Scale (SCD-HRSS) will assess stigma. SCD-HRSS has 4 subscales that measure stigma from the public, doctors, nurses, and family; and consists of 40 items on a 6 point Likert scale. It is scored by obtaining the sum of the mean score of the four subscales (subscales: 10-60; total scale: 40-240). Higher scores indicate higher perceived stigma.
Time frame: 10 minutes
Disease-related Stigma
The Measure of Sickle Cell Stigma (MoSCS) will assess stigma. MoSCS consists of 11-items with 4 subscales assessing social exclusion, internalized stigma, disclosure concerns, and expected discrimination. It is measured on a 6 point Likert scale; scores range from 6-36 and are obtained by summing and averaging the total scale. Higher scores indicate higher perceived stigma.
Time frame: 5 minutes
Quality of life
Quality of life will be measured using Adult Sickle Cell Quality of life Measures (ASCQ-Me) subscales for emotional impact, pain episodes, pain impact, sleep impact, social functioning impact, and stiffness impact. For pain episodes separate composite scores are calculated for pain frequency (0-11) and severity (0-22). Higher scores indicate worse health status. Raw scores for the remaining scales range 5-25 and are developed by using T-Score transformation to standardize raw scores to have a mean of 50 (indicates an average health score on the scale) and standard deviation of 10 (represents one SD). Higher scores indicate healthier status.
Time frame: 14-21 minutes
Emotional impact
Score on the ASCQ-Me Emotional Impact - Raw scores for this scale ranges 5-25 and are developed by using T-Score transformation to standardize raw scores to have a mean of 50 (indicates an average health score on the scale) and standard deviation of 10 (represents one SD). Higher scores indicate healthier status.
Time frame: 2-3 minutes
Pain episodes
Score on ASCQ-Me Pain episodes - For pain episodes separate composite scores are calculated for pain frequency (0-11) and severity (0-22). Higher scores indicate worse health status.
Time frame: 2-3 minutes
Pain impact
Score on ASCQ-Me Pain impact - Raw scores for this scale ranges 5-25 and are developed by using T-Score transformation to standardize raw scores to have a mean of 50 (indicates an average health score on the scale) and standard deviation of 10 (represents one SD). Higher scores indicate healthier status.
Time frame: 2-3 minutes
Sleep impact
Score on ASCQ-Me Sleep impact - Raw scores for this scale ranges 5-25 and are developed by using T-Score transformation to standardize raw scores to have a mean of 50 (indicates an average health score on the scale) and standard deviation of 10 (represents one SD). Higher scores indicate healthier status.
Time frame: 2-3 minutes
Social functioning impact
Score on ASCQ-Me Social functioning impact - Raw scores for this scale ranges 5-25 and are developed by using T-Score transformation to standardize raw scores to have a mean of 50 (indicates an average health score on the scale) and standard deviation of 10 (represents one SD). Higher scores indicate healthier status.
Time frame: 2-3 minutes
Stiffness impact
Score on the ASCQ-Me stiffness impact - Raw scores for this scale ranges 5-25 and are developed by using T-Score transformation to standardize raw scores to have a mean of 50 (indicates an average health score on the scale) and standard deviation of 10 (represents one SD). Higher scores indicate healthier status.
Time frame: 2-3 minutes
Disease Severity
The ASCQ-Me Medical History Checklist (SCD-MHC) contains 9 items that list treatments and conditions associated with SCD (leg ulcers, avascular necrosis) that are scored dichotomously (0-9) with higher scores indicating higher disease severity.
Time frame: 2-3 minutes
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