Correlates of Defaulting from MDT among Leprosy Patients.

In order to analyse the factors of demographic as well as disease related variables and their correlation with Rate of Defaulting (ROD) from Multi Drug Therapy (MDT) among leprosy patients, secondary data have been collected from 3,579 new cases registered for MDT, during a period of 4 years from 2007 to 2010 in four leprosy hospitals/ treatment centers across the four high endemic states viz. Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh; Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Year wise percentage of patients defaulted was calculated on aggregate as well as with reference to each centre and cross tabulated with demographic and disease related factors. Findings show that out of the total 3,579 new cases, 1944,(54.3%) defaulted with variation across centers ranged from 44 to 66 percent. Comparison of ROD against type of leprosy indicated that MB types defaulted (55.7%) more than PB (50.6%) types, (statistically significant difference, (p=0,04). ROD of male patients across the centers ranged from 45% to 67.7% in comparison with 42.4% to 61.5% of female patients. A-statistically significant difference (p=6.04) was found between the overall ROD of males (56.35%) and females (51.47%). The ROD among those with more severe disabilities (WHO Gr-2) ranged between 44% to 67.5% across the centers, while the same among those'with less severe disabilities (Gr-0&1) ranged from 42.6 to 72.7 percent. Comparison of ROD against severity of disability was found statistically significant only across 2 centers. No statistically significant variation was found when ROD of adult patients with refeince to each centr ranged between (43.6% to 65.4%) was compared with the same of children ranged beeIen (36.2% to 69.3%). Across each of these categories and centers,'the ROD remained consistent over the ,4 years. Based on the above findings'this may be concluded that male sex and MB types are significant correlates of default from treatment. Severity of disabilities plays significant role only in certain areas, probably due to other interfering factors, which needs to be further investiged.