Quality of life of patients with paucibacillary leprosy.
BACKGROUND
Leprosy, an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, can affect the skin and the peripheral nervous system and, depending on the level of involvement, it can lead to severe deformities. Leprosy is classified into two major groups: paucibacillary (up to five lesions) and multibacillary (more than five lesions). The deformities that appear during the progress of the disease can affect the quality of life.


OBJECTIVE
To assess quality of life of patients with paucibacillary leprosy diagnosed and treated early in the outpatients' clinic.


METHODS
The Dermatology Life Quality Index questionnaire and ShortForm36 were applied to 49 outpatients undergoing treatment at the Leprosy Multidisciplinary Group of the Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculdade de Medicina of the Universidade de São Paulo.


RESULTS
The majority of the patients (63%) did not show impairment of the quality of life, according to the results obtained by the Dermatology Life Quality Index questionnaire. In the questionnaire Short Form-36, the scores assessed showed slight impairment of the quality of life.


CONCLUSIONS
On this study, we can conclude that this group of patients, with paucibacillary leprosy, did not show important impairment of the quality of life. Therefore we can conclude that the earlier the diagnosis and the treatment the lesser the influence on the quality of life.
Dermatology Program, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil. izabottene@hotmail.com
Iza Maria Corrêa
IM
Bottene
Vitor Manoel Silva dos
VM
Reis
D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D056005:Leprosy, Paucibacillary / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017192:Skin Diseases, Bacterial / Q000523:psychology*