Self-stigma of leprosy affected persons in Jaffna District

Leprosy new case detections are stagnant over the past 20 years and continue to be stigmatized in socially marginalized groups and the urban poor are less likely to seek care. There is a big gap in studies related to leprosy stigma in Sri Lanka. This study aimed to measure the stigma among leprosy affected persons in Jaffna District.
This was a cross sectional descriptive study done in dermatology clinic, teaching hospital, Jaffna using all 109 leprosy patients. The validated interviewer administered questionnaire with the tool (Internalized Scale of Mental Illness (ISMI) adapted for leprosyaffected persons) was used to measure the stigma. Average of mean scores (with SD) was calculated to demonstrate the level of stigma. The level of stigma to different domains/item responses were described by presenting compound bar diagrams/charts.
Mean age of the participants was 40.3±18.6yrs. Most of the participants were males (53.2%), Sri Lankan Tamils (97.2%), Hindus (77.1%), married (65.1%), from MOH Chankanai area (50.5%) and affected by MB type of leprosy (68.8%). Only 44% completed secondary education, 36.7% had no job and 32.1% were manual workers. The mean score of (ISMI) leprosy patients was 2.43 which mean high level of stigma. The response pattern to different components of ISMI was heterogeneous.