The influence of disease label, disease signs and levels of contact on the stigmatization of inflammatory bowel disease: A vignette experiment.

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are chronic bowel conditions with socially taboo symptoms, often resulting in individuals with IBD anticipating or experiencing stigmatization. Research indicates that the public tends to avoid medical conditions like IBD due to disease signs triggering feelings of disgust and perceived contamination risk, which is the premise of the disease avoidance model. Further, greater avoidance often occurs at higher levels of contact. Our study explored the influence of disease label (disclosed IBD label vs no disease label), disease signs (IBD symptoms) and levels of contact (short, long, and sustained) on public stigmatization of IBD. Participants (N = 450) read vignettes of a hypothetical individual with IBD exhibiting symptoms in a workplace context. Participants were randomly allocated to disclosure of the IBD label or no disease label conditions and completed ratings of avoidance and emotional reactions, and a measure of disgust sensitivity. Findings indicated that there was greater avoidance of IBD: (1) in the no disease label condition; (2) for sustained and closer contact; and (3) for more observable and disgust-eliciting disease signs. Additionally, emotional reactions did not differ according to the presence or absence of the IBD label, and higher disgust sensitivity was associated with avoidance of IBD (i.e., only for the no disease label condition). The public appear less avoidant of IBD for circumstances involving shorter contact and less disgust-eliciting symptoms. However, disclosing one's IBD label does not appear to be protective in mitigating avoidance towards the condition in situations involving prolonged contact.