TY - JOUR
KW - Treatment
KW - Patient dropout
KW - leprosy
KW - Brazil
KW - Adhesion
AU - Girão RJ
AU - Soares NL
AU - Pinheiro JV
AU - Oliveira G
AU - Carvalho SM
AU - Abreu LC
AU - Valenti VE
AU - Fonseca FLA
AB - Abstract


BACKGROUND: 

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease endemic in some undeveloped areas, and still represents a public health problem in Brazil. Therefore, the control of this endemic disease depends necessarily on the institution of correct treatment and containment of treatment dropout. This study aims to conduct a systematic review of published studies on treatment dropout of leprosy.

METHODS: 

We conducted a systematic review of articles on treatment dropout of leprosy, published between january 2005 and april 2013, on MEDLINE and SciELO databases. The search was performed using the MeSH terms: ¿leprosy¿; ¿patients dropouts¿ and the keywords: ¿leprosy, treatment¿ and ¿noncompliance, leprosy¿ in association, beside the equivalents in Portuguese.

RESULTS: 

There were originally 196 references. After analyzing the titles and abstracts of articles, 20 articles were obtained and included in the final sample.

DISCUSSION: 

Leprosy is a notifiable disease known as its disfiguring capability and the high rate of non-compliance to treatment. The low adhesion is responsible for the remaining potential sources of infection, irreversible complications, incomplete cure and, additionally, may lead to resistance to multiple drugs. Many factors are responsible for the interruption or dropout treatment: socioeconomic factors, education level, knowledge about the disease, lack of efficiency of health services, demographics, side effects of drugs, alcoholism, among others.

CONCLUSION: 

The recent scientific literature about the subject diverge regarding the factors that most affect the dropout problem in treating leprosy patients. However, better integration between professionals and users, and greater commitment of the patient, are common points among the authors of the studies.

BT - International Archives of Medicine
C1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24000954
CN - GIRAO 2013
DO - 0.1186/1755-7682-6-34
IS - 1
J2 - Int Arch Med. 
LA - eng
N2 - Abstract


BACKGROUND: 

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease endemic in some undeveloped areas, and still represents a public health problem in Brazil. Therefore, the control of this endemic disease depends necessarily on the institution of correct treatment and containment of treatment dropout. This study aims to conduct a systematic review of published studies on treatment dropout of leprosy.

METHODS: 

We conducted a systematic review of articles on treatment dropout of leprosy, published between january 2005 and april 2013, on MEDLINE and SciELO databases. The search was performed using the MeSH terms: ¿leprosy¿; ¿patients dropouts¿ and the keywords: ¿leprosy, treatment¿ and ¿noncompliance, leprosy¿ in association, beside the equivalents in Portuguese.

RESULTS: 

There were originally 196 references. After analyzing the titles and abstracts of articles, 20 articles were obtained and included in the final sample.

DISCUSSION: 

Leprosy is a notifiable disease known as its disfiguring capability and the high rate of non-compliance to treatment. The low adhesion is responsible for the remaining potential sources of infection, irreversible complications, incomplete cure and, additionally, may lead to resistance to multiple drugs. Many factors are responsible for the interruption or dropout treatment: socioeconomic factors, education level, knowledge about the disease, lack of efficiency of health services, demographics, side effects of drugs, alcoholism, among others.

CONCLUSION: 

The recent scientific literature about the subject diverge regarding the factors that most affect the dropout problem in treating leprosy patients. However, better integration between professionals and users, and greater commitment of the patient, are common points among the authors of the studies.

PY - 2013
EP - 34
T2 - International Archives of Medicine
TI - Leprosy treatment dropout: a sistematic review
UR - http://www.intarchmed.com/content/pdf/1755-7682-6-34.pdf
VL - 6
ER -