Self acceptance as self esteem predictor in leprosy patients.

Background: Leprosy is a disease that affects the physic and psychology that can cause a significant decrease in self esteem in leprosy patients. Some factors that can affect self esteem in leprosy patients one of them is self-acceptance of leprosy patients themselves. This study aims to identify the relationship of self-acceptance to self esteem leprosy patients in Leprosy Hospital Kediri.

Methods: The research design was observational analytic. The samples in the research were 114 respondents who met inclusion criteria using purposive sampling technique. The independent variable was self-acceptance while the dependent variable was self-esteem of patients with leprosy. The data were analyzed using Spearman's Rho statistic test.

Results: The results showed that most leprosy patients had moderate self-acceptance (50.9%) and moderate self esteem (59.6%). The results of Spearman's Rho statistic test showed that independent variable self acceptance have ρ-value = 0.000 indicating that correlation between self acceptance and self esteem was meaningful.

Conclusion: Kediri Leprosy Hospital was expected to increase further efforts to change the negative stigma in community through providing socialization routinely and counseling to patients with leprosy who had psychological problems such as low self-esteem.