Statistical Research on Stigma Issues

"Stigma is an important consideration for health policy and clinical practice for several reasons. It contributes to the suffering from illness in various ways, and it may delay appropriate help-seeking or terminate treatment for treatable health problems. For diseases and disorders that are highly stigmatized, the impact of the meaning of the disease may be as great or a greater source of suffering than symptoms of a disease. An early presentations of paucibacillary leprosy as a painless depigmented or anaesthetic patch is an example. Hearing the diagnosis is more troubling than symptoms of the disease. Social science studies of stigma regard it fundamentally as a problem arising from social interactions. Goffman and other researchers have also recognized self-perceived stigma, which may also be troubling and responsible for diminished self-esteem whether or not it arises from an actual interaction, and whether or not this perceived stigma accurately reflects the critical views of others. Stigma impairs the quality of life through concerns about disclosure, and it affects work, education, marriage, and family life. Although its impact is likely to be overlooked in the calculation of Disability-adjusted life-years stigma contributes to what WHO's Nations for Mental health Program calls the hidden burden of mental illness. In addition to the suffering it brings, research also shows that stigma and labelling may affect the course of recovery

The stigmatization of HIV/AIDS and specific groups at risk, such as men who have sex with men and illicit drug users, interferes with voluntary testing, counselling and treatment. Timely treatment may benefit the individual and society, inasmuch as it reduces suffering and it improves health and productivity The distasteful prospect of having a stigmatized condition, which is further associated with stigmatized status in society, may be an inducement to ignore it and forego the kind of help that one might readily acknowledge as useful if the condition were affecting someone else. Although denial may relieve the anxiety that follows from stigma, denial is a problem when a treatable condition remains untreated and progresses to cause avoidable suffering. Leprosy, which has long been the gold standard of stigmatized diseases, may progress to preventable deformities. Tuberculosis not only becomes more serious for the infected individual, but also poses a threat for contacts and further spread. People with untreated mental health problems may endure an avoidable progression of symptoms that may also make their condition more difficult to treat. For chronic diseases that require a long course of treatment, or chronic treatment for epilepsy, stigma constitutes an obstacle to remaining in treatment." Interventions: Research on Reducing Stigma

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