Stigma: The invisible side of bladder cancer – new advocacy infographic

We have launched a focused infographic in English – Stigma: The Invisible side of bladder cancer. The new infographic aims to highlight the impact of stigma on people affected by bladder cancer based on shared lived experiences from patients and caregivers.

When it comes to stigma, bladder cancer patients reported primarily worrying about disease disadvantage, self-stigma, and external stigma. The infographic features data from 312 patients and caregivers from France, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. They have shared their experiences in this targeted research through surveys and qualitative interviews.

This research helps us gain some insights that can help improve the understanding of patient experience and perception of disease disadvantage and stigma, in particular:

• Understand if and how this stigma exists within the bladder cancer patient community
• Understand what stigma is, how it manifests and the different types of stigma experience
• Explore how reported stigma evolves over the course of the disease

In addition to the international infographic in English, we will soon launch country-specific data and language infographics for France, Spain and Germany.

Helpful tool for advocacy and awareness

The infographic features a one-page toolkit to provide guidance for patient groups on how to utilise Stigma: The invisible side of bladder cancer infographic for advocacy and awareness. These suggestions can help you think further on how to best raise awareness in your local setting with healthcare professionals, stakeholders and broader community.

We will soon launch the tool in French, German, Italian and Spanish.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please get in touch with us at info@worldbladdercancer.org 

Disclaimer: The infographic was developed by the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition with the financial support of Astellas Pharma Europe Ltd, using the data from the “Patient and caregiver survey on stigma and disease disadvantage in bladder cancer 2022” developed by Real Sky Thinking for Astellas Pharma Europe Ltd.