Stigma Scale of Epilepsy: validation process.
OBJECTIVE
To validate a Stigma Scale of Epilepsy (SSE).


METHODS
The SSE was completed by 40 adult with epilepsy attending an Outpatient Epilepsy Clinic at the University Hospital of UNICAMP, and by 40 people from the community. People were interviewed on an individual basis; a psychologist read the questions to the subjects who wrote the answers in a sheet. The procedure was the same for all the subjects and completion took around ten minutes.


RESULTS
The SSE has 24 items. The internal consistency of the SSE showed alpha Cronbachs coefficient 0.88 for the patients with epilepsy and 0.81 for the community. The overall mean scores of the Stigma Scale of Epilepsy formula were: 46 (SD=18.22) for patients and 49 (SD=13.25) for the community where a score of 0 would suggest no stigma, and 100 maximum stigma.


CONCLUSIONS
The SSE has satisfactory content validity and high internal consistency. It allows the quantification of the perception of stigma by patients and people from community; this can then be used for interventional studies, such as mass media campaign in minimizing the negative facets of stigma.
Fernandes
Paula T
PT
Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, UNICAMP, Campinas, SP, Brazil.
Salgado
Priscila C B
PC
Noronha
Ana L A
AL
Sander
Josemir W
JW
Li
Li M
LM
D000328:Adult; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011287:Prejudice; D012938:Social Perception; D013240:Stereotyping; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires