Correlation Between Stigma and Quality of Life in Leprosy Patients in Mehrab Khan Region of Mashhad

Leprosy is one of the oldest chronic diseases, and similar to other infectious diseases, it causes long-term physical and social effects on the lives of patients and their families. This was a cross-sectional study conducted with 103 patients with leprosy in Mashhad in the Mehrab Khan region in March 2016. The sampling method was convenience sampling. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 19. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential tests (ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and independent t-test) were used. The results showed that the mean age of patients was 65.2±8.1 years and the mean age of developing leprosy was 15.3±7.03. There was an inverse correlation between the score of overall stigma, internal stigma, and all dimensions of quality of life that was statistically significant, except for the social dimension (r= -0.181…; P=0.067). There was an inverse correlation between the psychological dimension of quality of life and experienced stigma. The highest score of the overall quality of life was related to divorced patients with a mean score of 79.7, which was statistically significant (P=0.016) from those who were not divorced. In post-hoc test, just the difference between widow and divorced were significant regarding quality of life. According to results, there was a negative correlation between the quality of life and all aspects of stigma using the SARI tool.