Experience of stigma by people with fibromyalgia in health-care consultations: a focus group study

The study aims to understand the experiences of people with Fibromyalgia in healthcare consultations. In this study, we want to understand more about how people with chronic pain and Fibromyalgia experience stigma when they receive healthcare. We are looking at people’s experiences in health care consultations where they have felt stigmatised. By stigma we mean “being excluded, rejected, blamed, or devalued because you have a particular health problem’’. We know from PAE’s previous survey that this is a common experience of people with fibromyalgia. In this research we want to understand more about how stigmatising happens and how it can be prevented. We will use this understanding in later studies to design and test ways of teaching doctors and other professionals to be less stigmatising. This research comprises two linked studies using qualitative methods. Both will use iterative data collection and analysis. The study of diagnostic labels will use individual interviews and thematic analysis. The study of stigma will use focus groups and reflexive thematic analysis. Analysis of both studies will use a mixture of inductive (derived from the data) and deductive (applying existing theoretical models) approaches. Individuals and groups of participants from countries within Europe recruited through chronic pain patient advocacy and support groups affiliated to Pain Alliance Europe (PAE).