Background: Neuromuscular conditions (NMC) negatively impact quality of life (QoL) of people living with those conditions. Although illness-related stigma is known to influence QoL in other chronic diseases, few research has investigated this relationship among adults with NMC (Graham et al., 2011). NMC cover a variety of chronic muscular conditions where muscle degeneration affects daily life activity. Previous research reports low QoL in NMC where psychological factors are a stronger predictor than physical impairment (Bos et al., 2019; Theadom et al., 2022). QoL is a multi-faceted concept capturing self-perceived life quality. Among various influential factors to QoL, illness-related stigma and psychological destress were found impactful in several chronic diseases (Graham et al., 2011; O’Donnell & Foran, 2024). In Ireland, over 2600 people were diagnosed with these hitherto-incurable conditions, where Muscular Dystrophy (MD) makes up 22.5% (Lefter et al., 2017). However, few published research in Ireland investigated psychosocial health of this population. The present project is part of a larger project focused on identifying the psychosocial needs of adults with NMC in Ireland.
Aims and Objectives: This research aims to explore the relationships between stigma, psychological distress and QoL in adults living with MD and similar NMC in Ireland. Specifically, it seeks to understand how stigma and psychological distress influence QoL, aiming to lay the foundation for further research on psychosocial determinants of QoL in NMC. It can also provide insights into the possibilities of intervention in improving people’s life satisfaction with NMC.
Hypotheses:
Illness-related stigma and psychological distress (depression and anxiety) will be positively correlated. Higher scores on stigma will correlate with higher scores on psychological distress, both of which may be negatively associated to quality of life.
Stigma (IV) and psychological distress (IV2) will jointly negatively predict QoL (DV): higher levels of stigma will predict lower QoL.