Psychological Distress and Quality of Life among Persons with Leprosy

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by M Lepare. It affects mainly the peripheral nerves. It also affects the skin, muscles, eyes, bones, testes, and internal organs. In India, leprosy is known since ancient times as Kustiaroga and attributed to punishment or cause from God. During the middle ages, leprosy was widespread in almost all countries of the world. Thereafter, it declined slowly in many countries, partly due to strict isolation and partly due to improvements in the standard of living and the quality of life of the people. The study aimed to assess psychological distress and quality of life among persons with leprosy. This cross sectional study included 60 persons with Leprosy from Leprosy colony of Telangana, India, after obtaining their written consent. A semi-structured tool was used to elicit socio-demographic details. The psychological distress was assessed with DASS (21 items) and quality of life was assessed with WHOQOL-BREF (25 items). Data was analyzed with descriptive statistics tests and T-test were used. Ethical issues have been followed while conducting the study. It was found that majority of the respondents have psychological distress without any significant difference in male and female respondents which means both respondents psychological distress scale was elevating in depression, anxiety and stress domains due to leprosy and all most all domains of quality of life shows respondents were having poor quality of life. The findings from this study indicates that there was enormous scope for the social workers, they need to play various roles like preventive, curative, developmental and remedial roles for reducing psychological distress and to improve their quality of life among persons with leprosy.