Leprosy is a disease which has struck fear into human beings for thousands of years. This is partly because it causes considerable deformities and disabilities. In 1991, the 44th World Health Assembly adopted a resolution to eliminate the disease as a public health problem by the year 2000. However, one of the major obstacles to achieving this objective is the stigma associated with the disease. Stigma against leprosy patients affects all aspects of leprosy control. This paper describes a model of the stigmatization process in leprosy. The process of stigmatization can be divided into two stages. The first stage describes how certain cognitive dimensions of leprosy lead to a variety of affective responses towards the disease. The second stage involves how these affective responses contribute to social devaluation of the leprosy patient and consequently, the adoption of negative behaviours towards them.
BT - Leprosy review C1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9927806?dopt=Abstract CN - BAINSON 1998 DA - 1998 Dec DO - 10.5935/0305-7518.19980034 IS - 4 J2 - Lepr Rev LA - eng N2 -Leprosy is a disease which has struck fear into human beings for thousands of years. This is partly because it causes considerable deformities and disabilities. In 1991, the 44th World Health Assembly adopted a resolution to eliminate the disease as a public health problem by the year 2000. However, one of the major obstacles to achieving this objective is the stigma associated with the disease. Stigma against leprosy patients affects all aspects of leprosy control. This paper describes a model of the stigmatization process in leprosy. The process of stigmatization can be divided into two stages. The first stage describes how certain cognitive dimensions of leprosy lead to a variety of affective responses towards the disease. The second stage involves how these affective responses contribute to social devaluation of the leprosy patient and consequently, the adoption of negative behaviours towards them.
PY - 1998 SP - 341 EP - 50 T2 - Leprosy review TI - Dimensions and process of stigmatization in leprosy. UR - http://leprev.ilsl.br/pdfs/1998/v69n4/pdf/v69n4a03.pdf VL - 69 SN - 0305-7518 ER -