Leprosy and its impact on the quality of life of people with physical disabilities: a scoping review.
Douglas Moreira de Araujo, Elisa Camila de Souza E Silva, Helen Vaz da Silva Gomes and 3 others
PMID 39016428WHAT IT FOUND
Leprosy-related physical disability was linked to impaired daily living, social participation, income, mental health, and pain.
Mapping these themes can guide assessment and patient education rather than prove a treatment works.
Key findings
01The review mapped 36 included studies into six thematic categories about quality of life.
02The included studies reported impacts on basic and instrumental activities of daily living, including feeding, dressing, personal grooming, bathing, household tasks, shopping, and transportation.
03The themes also included stigma, low mental well-being, and pain, with functional disability, decreased work activity, and restricted social life linked to negative impacts on quality of life.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This was a scoping review, so it maps themes rather than estimating treatment effects. The authors did not assess the methodological quality of the included studies. Most included studies were cross-sectional, so they cannot prove that physical disability caused lower quality of life. Nineteen of the 36 included studies were from Brazil, so results may not fit other health systems. The included studies used different instruments, such as SALSA, WHOQOL-bref, and SF-36. This made consistent synthesis difficult. The search stopped at August 30, 2023, and gray literature was limited to the first five pages of some sources.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the review as proof that reconstructive surgery, self-care guides, nursing consultations, or quality-of-life scales improve patient outcomes. It mapped themes from mainly cross-sectional studies and did not assess study quality, so it cannot separate treatment effects from other factors.