A cross sectional study on perceived stigmatization psychological well being self esteem and functional limitation among indivisuals with leprosy living in the outskirts of chennai

Abstract

Background: Leprosy is one among the 20 conditions termed as Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD). It was considered a devastating disease in the past which when left untreated caused crippling of hands and feet, blindness and paralysis. Early diagnosis and treatment with MDT therapy has made leprosy a curable disease these days. However, today the major focus of global funding agencies is on Universal Health Coverage whereas NTDs have very limited resources and are almost ignored. newlineMaterials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among people with leprosy related disability residing in Chengalpattu district using a semi-structured questionnaire to test prevalence of quality of life, functional activity limitation, perceived stigma and its association with socio-demographic variables. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the 223 study participants. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS v 21. Fishers exact test and chi-square test were employed for categorical variables and statistical significance was set at p lt 0.05. newlineResults: Out of the 223 participants, 40.4% had poor quality of life score, 87.8% had activity limitation and 46.6% had perceived stigma. Class V socio-economic status, lesser duration of disability and positive surgery history for deformity had a significant association with overall quality of life. Statistically significant association was found between activity limitation and among those unemployed, belonging to class V of socio- economic status and those who had grade 2 disability at enrolment in the study. Individuals who are belonging nuclear family and those with positive history of surgery were statistically associated with perceived stigma. newlineConclusion: A huge burden of activity limitation is noted in the study together with, an almost equal prevalence of poor quality of life and perceived stigma among the study participants. newlineKeywords: newlineleprosy, disability, quality of life, perceived stigma, activity limitation newline newline