Irene Göttgens

Chapter 6 160 Table 1. Demographical and clinical characteristics of the participants Characteristic Overall (N=28) Men (n=13) Women (n=15) Age (Median in years (IQR)) 64.2 (7.8) 64.9 (6.5) 63.5 (8.9) Disease duration (Median in years (IQR)) 4.9 (2.4) 3.7 (1.4) 5.9 (2.7) Hoehn & Yahr Score25 (stage) (n(%)) Unilateral involvement only (1) 15 (54) 7 (54) 8 (53) Mild bilateral involvement (2) 8 (29) 4 (31) 4 (27) Moderate bilateral disease (3) 4 (14) 2 (15) 2 (13) Severe disability, but still able to stand and walk (4) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) Wheelchair bound (5) 1 (3.6) 0 (0) 1 (6.7) Ethnicity (n(%)) Dutch 28 (100) 13 (100) 15 (100) Education level* (n(%)) Lower education 2 (7.1) 1 (7.7) 1 (6.7) Medium education 6 (21) 3 (23) 3 (20) Higher education 20 (71) 9 (69) 11 (73) Living situation (n(%)) Alone 1 (3.6) 0 (0) 1 (6.7) With partner or family 27 (96) 13 (100) 14 (93) Facilitated care 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) Working status (n(%)) Working 8 (29) 3 (23) 5 (33) Not working 20 (71) 10 (77) 10 (67) * For education levels, the following categorization is used: Lower education (None, Primary education, VMBO, MAVO), Medium education (HAVO, VWO, MBO), Higher education (HBO, University, PhD) Phase 1: Focus group discussion results. Several gender related stereotypes were expressed by the participants on a different level of social manifestation. Overall, the most prominent gender-related stereotype mentioned by both men and women with PD was the idea related to “People with PD are old men”. This stereotypical idea is disease (‘Parkinson’s’), age (‘old’) and gender identity (‘men’) specific and often impacts the prospects of living with the disease and affects the experiences of stigma in people of different ages and particularly women. Some men and women also expressed stereotypical ideas related to dealing with difficulties in daily life, where coping through excessive drinking is considered more acceptable for men, whereas compulsive shopping was more acceptable for women. We found no distinct differences in experiences with gender norms or stereotypes between the higher GSC groups and the lower GSC groups, indicating that these themes are not

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