Stigma was assessed with two items from the
WHODAS II (26): How much embarrassment
did you experience because of your health problems
during the past 30 days? and How much
discrimination or unfair treatment did you experience
because of your heath problems during the
past 30 days?. For both questions, response
options included: None, a little, some, a lot or
extreme. Individuals endorsing at least A little
embarrassment and at least A little discrimination
were considered to have perceived stigma, since
both concepts are included in most stigma definitions
(18). Nevertheless, by requiring their coexistence,
our evaluation might be somewhat
restrictive. Because perceived stigma related to