Internalized Stigma in Hidradenitis Suppurativa: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) causes significant physical, social, and psychological burdens. Internalized stigma, acceptance of negative attitudes and stereotypes of society regarding a person's illness, has not been studied previously in HS. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to investigate the internalized stigma state of HS patients and identify the factors affecting it. METHODS: This multicenter, prospective, cross-sectional study included 731 patients. Internalized Stigma Scale (ISS), Hurley staging, Physician Global Assessment, Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), Skindex-16, Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and Visual Analog Scale (VAS)-pain score were used in the study. RESULTS: The mean ISS value (57.50 ± 16.90) was comparable to the mean ISS values of studies in visible dermatological and various psychiatric diseases. A significant correlation was found between the mean values of ISS and all disease activity scores, quality of life measures, BDI-II, and VAS-pain scores. Obesity, family history, low education and income level, vulva/scrotum involvement and being actively treated are significant and independent predictive factors for high internalized stigma in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: HS patients internalize society's negative judgements, which may create a profound negative effect on access to health care. Therefore, in addition to suppressing disease activity, addressing internalized stigma is fundamental for improving health care quality.

Developing the Scale of Parental Participation in Care: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Examining the Scale's Psychometric Properties.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to develop the Scale of Parental Participation in Care: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and to examine the Scale's psychometric properties. METHODS: The draft scale' items were created through relevant literature reviews, focus group interviews with nurses, and content validity evaluations by experts. Study data were collected in the neonatal intensive care unit of a public hospital in Turkey from June 2019 to February 2020. The study participants were comprised of 205 parents with an infant in the neonatal intensive care unit. The Scale's content validity and construct validity were evaluated to determine the validity of the scale. Cronbach's alpha coefficient, item-total score correlations, and intraclass correlation were calculated to evaluate the Scale's reliability. RESULTS: Content validity index values of the draft form of the scale ranged from 0.93 to 1.00. The final scale consisted of 18 items. From the exploratory factor analysis, it was found that the scale structure comprised a single factor that accounted for 51.92% of the total variance. Concerning the reliability of the Scale, it was calculated that Cronbach's alpha level was 0.93; item total correlations ranged from 0.48 to 0.78; intraclass correlation level was 1.000. CONCLUSION: It was found that the Parental Participation in Care Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was valid and reliable in this sample.

Intravenous immunoglobulin in resistant livedoid vasculopathy: Analysis of a case series.

We report a retrospective analysis the efficacy of high-dose intravenous immunoglobulins on 9 patients with Livedoid vasculopathy for whom resistant to immunosuppressants plus anticoagulants or could not be prescribed. Intravenous immunoglobulins were used 2 g/kg per month in these patients. The treatment induced stabilization of the disease and all patients demonstrated improvement with IVIg. Complete and partial clinical response was achieved in 6 and 3 patients respectively.