STIGMA ANALYSIS IN PATIENTS WITH LEPROSY

• DOI: 10.22533/at.ed.1592692215117

• Palavras-chave: Leprosy. Social stigma. Preconception.

• Keywords: Leprosy. Social stigma. Preconception.

• Abstract:

  Leprosy (HD) is a chronic disease, affecting people of any sex or age group, with a long clinical course and which, when left untreated, can cause deformities/physical disabilities, making its impairment visible, which can lead to social stigma. We sought to analyze the report of situations of social stigma in leprosy patients at the HD referral outpatient clinic in Sorocaba/SP. We applied the Brazilian version of the Explanatory Model Interview Catalog (EMIC) – Stigma Scale for people with HD in 37 leprosy patients; we also made an open question to describe some experience in this sense. Quantitative results were evaluated with Mann-Whitey and Kruskal-Wallis tests. We had 22 patients (59.46%) who said they had never suffered a situation of social prejudice due to leprosy. The statistical correlation between different clinical variables (gender, age, education, color, clinical stage of the disease), as well as the correlation between each of the clinical signs/symptoms of HD and the final EMIC score did not show any statistically significant association. Despite these findings, the existence of social stigma is clearly a problem that interferes with a better result in the eradication of the disease, and must be corrected by the health authorities.