Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of caregivers for patients with leprosy

Background: Leprosy is one of the oldest diseases known to humanity, it remains largely misunderstood. Misconceptions about leprosy lead to stigma towards people with the disease. In the lives of people affected by leprosy are caregivers who take on different roles in their daily upkeep. Family practices are keys for preventing illness, infection and disabilities. They support patient duringLong-term treatment of leprosy. Egypt is one of the global list of twenty two high-burden countries for leprosy. Aim: The study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude and practices about leprosy among family caregivers of leprosy patients. Egypt is one of the global lists of twenty-two high-burden countries for leprosy. Study design: A cross-sectional descriptive design. Subject: A convenience sample of 165 caregivers was selected. Setting: This study was carried out at the Western Dermatology and leprosy clinic at Minia City. Tools: A structured interview questionnaire was used to assess caregivers' knowledge, attitude and practices regarding leprosy, in addition to sociodemographic characters of the participants. Results: The results showed that 84% of caregivers had poor knowledge about leprosy, 77% had negative attitude and 87.9% of them had poor practices. Educated participants had higher mean knowledge score (2.58±1.35) and lower negative attitude level (20.09±6.01) than non-educated (2.35±0.98), and (21.24±5.13), respectively, however marital status and duration of caregiving were statistically significant factors related to the level of practice. Conclusion: This study has revealed deficiencies in the knowledge, attitude and practices among the family members of patients with leprosy. Except for the education level, no statistically significant relation between family caregivers’ sociodemographic characteristics and their level of knowledge or attitude about leprosy. Married caregivers and those who caring for patients more than 20 years had higher practice scores. Recommendation: Applying health education programs about leprosy for family caregivers of patients with leprosy as continued health education and behavior change activities are still the only tool to increase awareness regarding leprosy to get rid of misconception and stigma related to leprosy at community level, also design and disseminate related booklets and brochures to raise caregivers and public awareness regarding leprosy.