• Sibel Karşıdağ, Nilgün Çınar, Şevki Şahin, Nurdan Kotevoğlu, and Miruna Florentina Ateş.
• Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Maltepe University, İstanbul, Turkey
• Turk J Med Sci. 2019 Jun 18; 49 (3): 789794789-794.

Background/AimStigma can be defined as a negative perception of chronically ill patients by their relatives or by society, or a similar self-perception by the patients themselves. We aimed to validate the Turkish version of the Neuroquality of Life (Neuro-QoL)-Stigma Scale for neurologic diseases.Materials And MethodsForms were filled out by a total of 152 randomized patients under regular follow-up in the outpatient clinic (29 polyneuropathy, 25 epilepsy, 23 stroke, 24 tension-type headache, 28 multiple sclerosis, 27 Parkinson disease). The forms consisted of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), WHOQOL-BREF quality of life scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), the General Self-Efficacy (GSE) scale, and the Neuro-QoL-Stigma scale.ResultsThe internal consistency of the Neuro-QoL-Stigma scale showed Cronbach’s α coefficients of 0.95 for all groups. The mean scores of the stigma scales were 33.42 ± 13.91 (min–max: 24–87). There were strong negative correlations between high stigma scores and GSE-T, MSPSS-T, and WHOQOL-BREF, and a positive correlation with the BDI and BAI.ConclusionThe Turkish version of Neuro-QoL-Stigma has satisfactory content validity and high internal consistency. Neuro-QoL-Stigma is suitable for understanding stigmatization in different neurological disorders in the Turkish population. The scale is available for use at http://www.healthmeasures.net/explore-measurement-systems/neuro-qol.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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