PSYCHOSOCIAL STRESS, TYPE-I PERSONALITY TRAITS AND STIGMATIZATION AMONG HEPATITIS C PATIENTS

Abstract

The present study was conducted to identify the level of psychosocial stress, type-I personality traits and stigmatization among hepatitis C patients. The study also explored the relationship between psychosocial stress and stigma among hepatitis C patients. The research was conducted in three parts. Part I was concerned with the translation and determination of psychometric properties of The Stress Inventory Nagano (2007) and Social Impact Scale (Fife, 1995). The Stress Inventory comprised of 12 subscales i.e. Low sense of control, Object dependence/loss, Object dependence/happiness, Object dependence/anger, Annoying barrier, Object dependence/ambivalence, Disclosure of negative experiences, Unfulfilled needs for acceptance, Altruism, Egoism, Rationalizing conflicts/frustrations and Lack of emotional experiences. Social Impact Scale has four subscales i.e. social isolation, social rejection, financial insecurity and internalized shame. For translation back translation procedure was adopted. After the finalization of the translation of scale and inventory, they were administered on sample of 90 hepatitis C patients taken from OPD of Gastroenterology department of PIMS in order to check the psychometric properties. The alpha reliability for the Social Impact Scale was .94. For subscales of Social Impact Scale it ranges from.67 to .89 and for the subscales of The Stress Inventory it ranges from .56 to .81. Item total correlation and item total correlation of subscales was determined which has indicated they are significantly positively correlated with each other. Part II comprised of pilot study (N = 30) which was carried out in order to check the flaws that may affects the results in the main study. Part III of the study comprised of Main Study. For the main study 200 hepatitis C patients were taken from the OPD of Gastroenterology department of PIMS. Results of the main study revealed that the level of psychosocial stress was high on object dependence anger. Results revealed that level of stigma is high on subscale of social rejection. Among the four type-I personality traits patients score highest on object dependence/loss and overall they scored high on object dependence anger, which indicate that they have the tendency to develop chronic illnesses like cancer or CHD. The significant positive relationship was found between psychosocial stress and stigma as dimensions of stigma were positively associated with the subscales of The Stress xi Inventory. Another important objective of the study was to find out the relationship between the severity of disease and type-1 personality traits. It was partially supported by the data that there was positive relationship between the object dependence loss and severity of disease. Regarding gender there was no significant difference was found on level of stigma whereas regarding psychosocial stress the difference exists on Rationalizing conflicts /frustration. There was no significant difference between the level of psychosocial stress except on Egoism, where as regarding stigma significant difference exists on financial insecurity and social isolation among hepatitis C patients before and after receiving interferon therapy. Demographic variables like family system, number of family members, stage of hepatitis C, severity level, age, gender and level of education also have important impact on perception of stigma and level of psychosocial stress. The findings have very important implication for the provision of psychological support to the Hepatitis C patients