Avaliação da qualidade de vida de pacientes com hanseníase: uso do dermatology life quality index e do medical outcomes study 36

Abstract

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by ycobacterium leprae, Bacillus acid-resistant, with tropism for Schwann cells and skin. Although curable disease still presents a major public health problem in Brazil, with its higher morbidity due to nervous injury due to permanent physical disabilities and deformities, which significantly impair quality of life of patients. Objective: To assess the quality of life of leprosy patients at diagnosis and at discharge using the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and the Medical Outcomes Study 36 (SF-36). Methodology: descriptive study, a prospective study that evaluated 57 patients with confirmed diagnosis of leprosy, and these were classified according to their operational diagnosis (multibacillary and paucibacillary), all being subjected to questionnaires DLQI and SF-36. Results: There was a predominance of the disease in males (59.6%) and multibacillary cases (35.1% in early treatment and 31.6% at the end of tramaneto). It was found that multibacillary patients as compared to paucibacillary had higher sensory changes (p value 0.002), worse quality of life index measured by DLQI (p = 0.04) and worse quality of life in the physical domain as measured by SF- 36 (p = 0.026). Conclusions: leprosy causes damage to quality of life of sufferers, especially those diagnosed as multibacillary