Prejudice towards chronic diseases: Comparison among epilepsy, AIDS and diabetes

Introduction: Diseases have an additional negative meaning but with different magnitude. Epilepsy is considered a stigmatizing condition; however its magnitude is unknown in our society, a limited-resource country, as Brazil. Purpose: To compare the stigma perception of epilepsy to other two chronic conditions: AIDS and diabetes in the city of Campinas, Brazil. Methods: We interviewed people in two situations: on the streets (145 randomly selected people) and during a Meeting of Epilepsy (86 people). We asked three questions "What score would you rate for the prejudice that general population has towards: epilepsy, AIDS and diabetes". The score ranges from 0 (no prejudice) to 10 (maximum prejudice), and was displayed to the interviewee in the format of a ruler. Results: The median (upper and lower 95% confidence interval) prejudice score of lay people was 9 (7.8-8.6) for AIDS, 7 (6.1-7.0) for epilepsy and 2 (2.5-3.5) for diabetes. The median prejudice score of people with epilepsy and relatives was 9 (6.9-8.1) for AIDS, 7 (6.4-7.5) for epilepsy and 2.5 (2.9-4.2) for diabetes. Discussion: There is a difference in the perception of prejudice towards people with chronic diseases; AIDS had the highest level of stigma and diabetes the lowest, and epilepsy was in the intermediate position but closer to AIDS. (c) 2007 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.