Quality of Life among patients with Leprosy in Kafr Al Sheikh Governorate

Abstract

Background: Leprosy is an infectious disease that causes severe, disfiguring skin sores and nerve damage in the arms, legs, and skin areas around the body. Aim, assess quality of life among patients with leprosy . Design: Descriptive design. Sample,conveniencesample of this study was composed of 200 patients with leprosy from Dermatology Hospital at Kafr- AlSheikh Governorate.Tools:three tools were developed by the investigator 1.Self-administered questionnaire sheet to collect data including socio-demographic characteristics of patients, patients' knowledge about leprosy disease, patients' reported practices with leprosy toward care of leprosy disease , health needs and problems for patients with leprosy.2- quality of life dimensions.3-medical history for patient with leprosy and their family. Results,the age range was 20->40 years old, with a mean age and stander deviation was 50.22 ± 6.39,regarding the total quality of life for patients with leprosy showed that 56% of the studied patients had low quality of life, while 13% had high quality of life,regarding the total knowledge showed that 66.0% of the studied patients had poor level of knowledge, 21.0% of them had average knowledge while only 13.0% had good knowledge about leprosy disease.Conclusion, there was statistical significant positive correlation between patients' knowledge about leprosy disease and their quality of life, and there was statistical significant positive correlation between patients' reported practices toward care of leprosy disease and their quality of life. Recommendations,the current study recommended activating the role of community health nurse for early detection of any complications of leprosy patients.