In Bone district, Province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, a total of 50 randomly selected leprosy patients were interviewed about their beliefs about their illness with the help of a questionnaire. It became evident, that their knowledge about leprosy was generally satisfactory, but only few patients adopted the bacterial theory as cause of their disease. Besides it was found that leprosy patients tend to discriminate themselves, while more tolerance was found in their healthy contacts. Traditional beliefs and religious ideas played an important role. To overcome the stigma, more health education, based on a multidisciplinary approach is required. Beside the modern medical theory, cultural beliefs and religious views have to be taken into consideration.
BT - Tropical and geographical medicine C1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1812604?dopt=Abstract CN - ELISSEN1991 DA - 1991 Oct IS - 4 J2 - Trop Geogr Med LA - eng N2 -In Bone district, Province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, a total of 50 randomly selected leprosy patients were interviewed about their beliefs about their illness with the help of a questionnaire. It became evident, that their knowledge about leprosy was generally satisfactory, but only few patients adopted the bacterial theory as cause of their disease. Besides it was found that leprosy patients tend to discriminate themselves, while more tolerance was found in their healthy contacts. Traditional beliefs and religious ideas played an important role. To overcome the stigma, more health education, based on a multidisciplinary approach is required. Beside the modern medical theory, cultural beliefs and religious views have to be taken into consideration.
PY - 1991 SP - 379 EP - 82 T2 - Tropical and geographical medicine TI - Beliefs of leprosy patients about their illness. A study in the province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. VL - 43 SN - 0041-3232 ER -