Experienced Facial Masking Indirectly Compromises Quality of Life Through Stigmatization of Women and Men with Parkinson's Disease

This study examined the relationship between self-reported facial masking and quality of life (QoL) in people with Parkinson's disease (PD), and tested experienced stigma as a mediator and gender as a moderator of this relationship. The strength of stigma as a mediator was compared against an alternative mediator, depression. Ninety people with PD (34 women) rated difficulty showing facial expression (masking), and completed the Stigma Scale for Chronic Illness, Geriatric Depression Scale (15-item), and Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-39. A conditional process model tested the indirect effect of facial masking on QoL through stigma, separately for women and men. A parallel indirect model included both stigma and depression to compare their statistical and clinical significance as mediators. Gender-moderated mediation of stigma reduced the association between facial masking and QoL to non-significance, suggesting stigma explained the association between facial masking and QoL. While facial masking was more stigmatizing for women than for men, stigma mediated the facial masking-QoL association for both women and men. Stigma (controlling for depression) reached a statistically and clinically significant level of mediation, whereas depression (controlling for stigma) reached a statistically yet not clinically significant level of mediation. People with PD who experience more severe facial masking feel more stigmatized, especially women. Regardless of gender, an increase in stigma from facial masking increases the likelihood of compromised QoL that reaches both statistical and clinical levels of significance.