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
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Patients living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) often experience a poor quality of life due to stigmatization that can be assessed through the IBD perceived stigma scale (PSS). Resilience is the ability to cope positively with a specific disease or situation.

Research motivation

Stigmatization in IBD patients, especially in relation to one’s own resilience, has been poorly characterized. A validated Italian version of the IBD-PSS is not available.

Research objectives

To validate an Italian version of the PSS in IBD patients and to assess patients’ resilience and its relation with stigmatization.

Research methods

We enrolled 126 consecutive IBD patients (mean age 46.1 ± 16.9, male 56.4%), 57 with CD and 69 with UC, in an Italian, tertiary referral, IBD center. Clinical and demographic data were collected, and stigma and resilience were evaluated through the IBD-PSS and the 25-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, respectively. Psychometric validity of the IBD-PSS was assessed, and a multivariable analysis for factors associated with greater stigma was computed.

Research results

We found that the Italian version of the IBD-PSS had an acceptable reliability, having a Cronbach alpha of 0.87, with an excellent test-retest score. The median PSS score was 0.45 (0.20-0.85), and resilience negatively correlated with perceived stigma (Spearman’s correlation -0.18, 95%CI: -0.42-0.08, P = 0.03).

Research conclusions

We have developed a reliable tool to be used in clinical practice for assessing stigmatization in Italian IBD patients. Also, we found that resilience may have an influence on stigmatization, possibly improving patients’ illness perception.

Research perspectives

The Italian IBD-PSS should be used extensively in order to assess this important endpoint in the care of IBD patients. More prospective, long-term studies looking at more detailed factors influencing stigmatization and resilience are urgently needed.