Psychoeducational Intervention for Improving Mental Health of Leprosy Patients

Leprosy Review, 2022

Objective To investigate factors that influence the mental wellbeing of persons affected by leprosy in Far-Western Nepal. Methods The study used a cross-sectional design with a qualitative approach. Semistructured, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions covering topics such as feelings towards and experiences with leprosy, mental wellbeing, knowledge about leprosy, social life, community, culture and future outlook were employed. The data were analysed using Framework Analysis and Thematic Open Analysis. Results A total of 25 persons affected by leprosy were included in the in-depth interviews and 13 persons participated in focus group discussions. We found that participants often experienced stigma and/or mental distress. Participants reported physical weakness or pain, activity limitations, worries about their disease and its implications, feelings of shame, suicidal thoughts, and perceived and/or internalised stigma. Factors influencing mental wellbeing included discrimination, social support, religion, participation (restrictions), (in)ability to work, community attitudes, knowledge of leprosy and cultural beliefs about the disease. Conclusions This study revealed that the majority of participants faced leprosy-related stigma, physical discomfort, restrictions in social participation and mental distress. We recommend the development of interventions such as counselling after diagnosis with leprosy, increasing leprosy awareness and knowledge, addressing negative attitudes and beliefs in the community and stimulating social participation.

Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare

Psychological strength plays an important role in reducing stress due to leprosy because leprosy can cause physical, psychological, and social problems. For that reason, this study aims to investigate the relationship between coping sources, coping strategies, and psychological well-being through leprosy stress. Methods: This research instrument uses a stress perception scale, coping sources, coping strategies, and psychological well-being scale to collect data from 125 participants consisting of women (33.60%) and men 66.40%. The test analysis in this study uses SmartPLS through structural equation modeling to prove the correlation. Results: The results of the SEM test indicate that there is a negative relationship between coping resources and leprosy stress, with a coefficient value of (−0.380), p-value of (0.000) <0.05, and a positive relationship is obtained with psychological well-being with the coefficient value of (0.427), p-value of (0.000) <0.05. Meanwhile, the SEM test shows a negative relationship between coping strategies and stress of leprosy, with the coefficient of (−0.566), p-value of (0.000) <0.05, and a positive relationship is obtained with psychological well-being (0.355), p-value of (0.000) < 0.05. Furthermore, on psychological well-being, stress shows a negative relationship, with the coefficient of (−0.212), p-value of (0.002). Discussion: Exploration of important coping sources is done to weaken the power of leprosy as a stressor and the use of effective coping strategies is needed to solve physical, psychological, and social problems for "People Affected by Leprosy", and simultaneously these two attributes are used to achieve prosperity. psychological. better.

Culturally determined beliefs and misconceptions regarding leprosy exist in almost all communities. The consequent impacts of society towards leprosy are reflected by the level of perceived stigma. The research will help to understand the psychosocial condition of leprosy affected people in northwest and southwest part of Bangladesh. The cross-sectional study was conducted from July-December, 2015. A total of 92 leprosy affected people were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaire. The affected people along with the family members do not have satisfactory information of the disease and therefore provide essential knowledge and services will help to improve the situation. Required to improve the knowledge and attitude towards the leprosy affected people along with support services to address unmet needs.

Global Mental Health, 2020

Leprosy has long-term consequences related to impairment and stigma. This includes a major impact on mental health. This study aims to consolidate current evidence regarding the mental health impact of leprosy on affected persons and their family members. In addition, determinants influencing mental health outcomes among leprosy-affected persons and effective interventions are examined. A keyword-based search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO, Infolep and InfoNTD; additional literature was also considered. Articles presenting primary data involving leprosy-affected persons or their family members experiencing mental conditions were included. Independent extraction of articles was executed using predefined data fields. Articles were sorted according to relevance. In total, 65 studies were included in this systematic review. Multiple psychiatric morbidities have been identified among leprosy-affected persons, including depression, anxiety disorders and suicide ...

Knowledge and attitude about leprosy was evaluated in a sample of 63 volunteer physiotherapy students, from various Nigerian universities using a three-part questionnaire. Attitude scores averaged 54.6±21.0 ranging from 0 to 77.8. Eighty-one percent of the students showed poor attitude, 13% showed fair attitude while only 6% showed good attitude. Knowledge scores averaged 41.0±18.6, ranging from 6.3 to 93.8. Twenty-four percent demonstrated poor knowledge, 44% had fair knowledge while 32% demonstrated good knowledge. Relationship between attitude and knowledge was not significant (r=0.2;P=0.07). Relationship between level of study and knowledge was significant (r=0.6; P=0.00). Relationship between level of study and attitude was not significant (r=0.1;P=0.4). In conclusion, the students have fairly good knowledge but poor attitude about leprosy. There is a need for a well-organised, specifically targeted educational programme for physiotherapy trainees. It is desirable that they spend time in a leprosy setting during their clinical attachment.

Dermatology Research and Practice, 2021

Background. Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease for which effective therapy has been long since invented. Thus, the morbidity has been decreased as technology has advanced, but the permanent disability has continuously generated stigma for centuries. The stigma causes the emergence of a poor psychological impact on people with leprosy (PwL). These impacts make new PwL reluctant to get appropriate therapy for their initial symptoms and are, thus, troublesome in accomplishing the goals of the leprosy elimination program. The aim of this review is to provide the history of psychological impact amongst PwL in countries across the globe. Methods. This is a literature review study. A keyword-based search was conducted in digital libraries. Articles reporting on PwL’s psychology and related issues, such as quality of life, opportunity of building a marriage, and getting hired, were included. The data were presented based on a leprosy history timeline with cutoff points, namely, the inv...

Leprosy Review, 2019

Introduction: In addition to multi-drug treatment, patient self-care practice is crucial for the successful treatment of the disease. This study assessed the knowledge and self-care practices of leprosy patients at ALERT leprosy referral hospital in Ethiopia. Methods: A total of 424 leprosy patients were interviewed using pre-tested structured questionnaires. The questionnaires included core points such as sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge of leprosy and self-care practices. Bloom's cut off point was used to describe the knowledge and self-care practices of the respondents and statistical significance was assessed at 95% confidence interval with 5% of level of significance. Results: The knowledge score of the respondents was poor for 276 (65•1%) and good for 148 (34•9%). The level of knowledge varied significantly with respect to age group (p , 0•01), sex (p , 0•01), marital status (p ¼ 0•003), educational status (p , 0•01) and income (p , 0•01). About 77•4% of interviewed patients had poor self-care practices and only 22•6 of patients had a good self-care practice score (p , 0•01). Age (p ¼ 0•002), previous disability due to leprosy (p , 0•01), knowledge of leprosy (p ¼ 0•038) and income (P ¼ 0•028), were significantly associated with poor selfcare practice. Conclusion: Although leprosy treatment, disability prevention and rehabilitation programs have been run in the country for decades, poor leprosy self-care practice and poor leprosy knowledge has been confirmed in this study. Therefore, the leprosy program should re-visit its strategy and mode of delivery to improve the leprosy knowledge and leprosy self-care practices of patients.

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2022

Background Family involvement in overcoming the severity of leprosy is very important in the life of leprosy sufferers in communities who experience the clinical and, psychological, social and behavioral consequences of the disease. However, this need, psychosocial, is felt to be not optimal. This study is to identify how the experiences of family members as caregivers provide assistance to individuals with leprosy in improving healing and maintaining patterns of interaction in the family. Methods The design uses qualitative research with in-depth, face-to-face interviews with family members in a semi-structured manner with the hope of obtaining complete data. Using purposive sampling with Participatory Interpretative Phenomenology analysis, there are 12 families with 15 family members consisting of 4 men and 11 women. Results This study produced a family theme that tried to follow what would happen to individuals with leprosy, with four sub-categories: 1) Using various coping alternatives to recognize the disease, 2) Family members in the shadow of leprosy, 3) Trying to empathize with other family members. sick, 4) Caring for the emotional response of the family and seeking support. Conclusions This analysis shows that deficiency in cognitive aspects can be closed by maintaining a lifestyle in the family through efforts to understand, support, establish communication, increase maximum involvement in restoring self-confidence, especially in individuals with leprosy with psychosocial problems in the family. The results of this study can be used as PLOS NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES

International journal of health sciences

Poor self-care in people with leprosy can cause progressive damage because leprosy attacks the peripheral nerves, skin, hands and feet and eyes, so patients need good self-care.It is necessary to increase the active role of sufferers to seek information about leprosy and to increase routine self-care habits to prevent disability. Aim of this study for reviewing the relevant literature available on the behavior of people with leprosy in preventing disability through patient self-care. Literature study in 2018-2022, data obtained from databases include Scopus, JSTOR, Science Direct with the keywords leprosy, self-care, disability, behavior, and prevention. This literature study found 28 articles that match the criteria inclusion and exclusion. From the review of the article it is known about behavior of people with leprosy in preventing disability through self care of patients. The results of the literature review show that there are five sub-findings, namely factors related to the i...

Journal of Applied Nursing and Health, 2022

This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA lisense (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License) janh.candle.or.id ~ 305 ~

PLOS ONE, 2019

Leprosy remains a disease of concern in many countries including Nepal. To achieve the target of elimination, the WHO strategy promotes comprehensive education of patients, healthcare workers (HCWs), and the public on leprosy-related issues. However most educational programs are based on the concerns of HCWs and not on patients' needs. The objective of this paper is to explore the educational needs of leprosy affected patients in Nepal and compare them to the needs perceived by HCWs. Semi directive interviews were conducted with patients and HCWs. The data was analyzed using the basic interpretative qualitative framework. The study was conducted in two leprosy referral centers, one university hospital and one primary health care center: Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital and Services Centre, Anandaban Hospital and its satellite clinic in Patan, B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences in Dharan, and the Itahari primary health care centre. The results show that there remains a lack of knowledge regarding the disease (origins, manifestations, prevention and treatment) contributing to late care seeking behavior and high levels of stigma, with an important psychological and financial stress for patients. All of the HCWs displayed a good understanding of patients' difficulties and needs and acknowledged the key role of patient education. However, they expressed several challenges in managing patients due to lack of time, human resources and training in patient education.

Bioscientia medicina, 2020

This study aims to determine the role of self-stigma towards psychological well-being to the people who have had leprosy in South Sumatera. The study hypothesis that there is a role for self-stigma towards psychological well-being viewed from psychological distress in people who have had leprosy in South Sumatera. Methods. The participants of this study were people who have had leprosy who finished their medical treatment. The research sample was 112 people who have had leprosy. This study used the consecutive sampling technique. Psychological well-being and self-stigma were measured by the scale. The research used simple regression analysis. Results. The result obtained by the value of R= 0.442, R square= 0.178, F= 11.821, and P= 0,000 (p<0,05). It was proved that selfstigma has a significant role in 17.8% towards psychological well-being. Conclusion. There is no difference in psychological distress based on the role of self-stigma and psychological well-being of people who have had leprosy in South Sumatera.

Journal of Pharmaceutical Negative Results, 2022

Leprosy also known as Hansen's disease (HD) , is a long term infection by the bacteriamycobacterium leprae or mycobacterium lepromatos is infection can lead to damage of the nerves , respiratory tract , skin and eyes The nerve damge may result in a lack of ability to feel pain , which can lead to the loss of parts of a persons extremities from repeated injuries or infection through unnoticed wounds .An infected person may also experience muscle weakness and poor eyesight. Leprosy symptoms may begin within one year but ,for some people , symptoms may take 20 years or more to occur. METHODOLOGY: In the present study pre-experimental design with pre and post test was used ,Data collected on 100 (50 control and 50 experimental) Samples .A non probability convenient sampling technique was used to collect data from the samples. Tool was constructed to identify the demographic variables and a set of self structured questionnaires on knowledge regarding leprosy .RESULT: Findings showed that in the pre-test the level of knowledge of Leprosy among people were average with mean 6.54 and in the post test it was good with mean score of 9.8 in the experimental group. An effective health education campaign was found to greatly increase people's knowledge of Leprosy. CONCLUSION: The effectiveness of health education regarding leprosy in post experimental group with 9.8 mean and SD 2.54 .The value of t is 2.670062 .the value of p is 01026. The result is significant at p<.

National Journal of Community Medicine, 2013

Background: Leprosy which is also known as hansen’s disease is probably the oldest disease known to mankind. It is imperative for the young medical students who become future physicians to be well aware about the signs and symptoms along with management of leprosy in India. Objectives: The present study was under taken with the objective to assess the knowledge and attitude of medical students towards leprosy and leprosy affected patients. The present study also aims to study the impact of one day training programme on the change of knowledge and attitude towards leprosy and leprosy affected patients. Material & Methods: The study was a cross sectional study. It was a part of a one day training programme oriented for the up gradation of knowledge about the recent advances in the field of leprosy management and also to highlight the salient features of National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP). All the students who reported on that day were given a questionnaire to be filled before the start of the training programme and after the completion of the training programme. Result: It was noted that majority of the study participants were aware about Multi Drug Therapy (MDT) but awareness about the other aspects of leprosy was very low. The majority of the study participants were having a negative attitude towards the leprosy affected persons which changed significantly after the training programme. Conclusion: Such training programme should be regularly organized for the undergraduate student as these may not only increase the knowledge of the undergraduate students but also have a positive change in the attitude of students.

Journal of Scientific Research, Education, and Technology (JSRET)

Leprosy (Leprosy) is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. This disease primarily affects the skin, peripheral nerves, and eyes. The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between the level of knowledge about leprosy (leprosy) and self care agency in leprosy patients at the leprosy clinic, Daha Husada Hospital, Kediri. The research design used was analytical observational with a cross sectional approach. The population is all leprosy patients in the leprosy polyclinic as many as 80 respondents taken by cluster random sampling The independent variable is self care agency and the dependent variable is the level of knowledge. Data collection using a questionnaire and observation with an ordinal scale, analysis using the Rho sperm test with alpha &lt;0.05. The results of the study from 40 respondents showed that almost all of the knowledge levels were lacking as many as 21 respondents (62.5%) had less self-care agencies, and a small part of the res...