Fig 1.
Map of Ekondotiti and Mbonge health districts showing number of participants by village surveyed (drawn using QGIS version 2.18.9 Las Palmas [22]).
Fig 2.
Panel A shows the trend in the leprosy prevalence rate per 10,000 populations from 2010 to 2014, while panel B shows the leprosy detection rate per 100,000 populations over the same period in Mbonge and Ekondotiti health districts. The trend in leprosy prevalence rate was constantly above 1 per 10000 populations in Ekondotiti. For Mbonge, it fluctuated from 3.23 in 2010 down to 0.36 in 2012 and back to 1.73 per 10000 populations in 2014. Over the same period, the leprosy detection rate was stable at about 21 per 100,000 populations in Ekondotiti from 2010–2011, then dropped to 6 in 2012 before rising again to 43.1 per 100,000 in 2014. In Mbonge, the detection witnessed fluctuations from about 50 per 100,000 populations between 2010 and 2011, down to 1.2 in 2012, then rose sharply to 145.5 in 2013 before dropping again to 80 in 2014.
Table 1.
List of study outcome variables.
Table 2.
Relationship between knowledge, beliefs and perceptions regarding leprosy and demographic variables.
Fig 3.
Sources of information on leprosy.
The major sources of information on leprosy to our participants were from community volunteers (41%), friends (38%), the media (24%), and health personnel (19%).
Table 3.
Causes of leprosy as cited by the respondents.
Fig 4.
Cited problems faced by people with leprosy.
The participants of our study admitted that PWL face a variety of problems in the society, ranging from difficulties getting employment, admission in school, or getting married themselves; to bringing shame in the family and causing other problems to family members.
Table 4.
Relationship between attitudes regarding leprosy and demographic variables.
Table 5.
Relationship between knowledge, beliefs and perceptions regarding leprosy and attitudes towards PWL.
Table 6.
Independent predictors of attitudes towards PWL.