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Measurement of Quality of Life in patients of Leprosy attending Outdoor Patient Department at Tertiary Care Center of Ahmedabad: A Cross Sectional Study
Abstract
Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by the Mycobacterium leprae, which primarily affects the
peripheral nervous system and secondarily the skin and having great impact on patients’ quality of life.
A cross sectional study was carried out to assess and evaluate the Quality of Life (QOL) of Leprosy patients at
tertiary care center of Ahmedabad over a period of 8 months using Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI)
designed by Finlay and Khan. In our study we included 87 Leprosy patients who were >16 years and also
released from treatment (RFT) patients with Male: Female ratio was 3:1, majority of patients (42.52%) were
in the middle age group (31-45 yr). Mean duration of disease was 3.2 year. The mean DLQI score was
10.58±2.57%. According to DLQI score categorization 47 patients (54.02%) were having very large effect on
their quality of life. There was no significant difference observed between gender, age & education in all
subdomain of quality of life. Statistically significant difference (p<0.001) was noted with duration of disease
and presence of deformity. Conclusion of our study was that deformities and social stigma associated with
leprosy has great impact on quality of life of leprosy affected persons even after the disease gets
bacteriologically cured.
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Type
Journal Article