Risk factors for increasing leprosy treatment dropout cases reported in specific areas in Tangerang District
Introduction: In 2020, Indonesia announced the elimination of leprosy in the whole country, including the Banten Province, with new cases detected 568 cases (4.8 per 100,000 population), higher than the national average of 4.12 per 100,000 population. Although information on the percentage of dropouts in Indonesia is not known, it still occurs in the field, If the case is cleared out unchecked, it will become a source of transmission of wellbeing problems in the community. This study aims to determine the influence of socio-demographic factors, leprosy patients, and health services on leprosy dropout rates and detect new cases in the Panongan Community Health Center working area.
Methods: Secondary data on leprosy patients at the Panongan Community Health Center during 2019-2022 and primary data from cross-sectional surveys through home visits, interviews, face-to-face, and screening. Screening for leprosy symptoms in close contact with the patient’s family using a questionnaire that includes independent variables of socio-demographic, patient, and health center with the dependent variable of treatment dropout. Purposive sampling technique in 5 villages with leprosy cases. The total sample size was 79 people. Data were processed and analyzed using STATA 14.0.
Results: The logistic regression test was found to be significant (p-value < 0.05) including age, (p=0.003), occupation (p=0.002), stigma (p=0.001), family of leprosy patients (p=0.003), close contact (p=0,000), healthy eating habits (p=0.002), perception of taking medicine (p=0.000) and a woman, 60 years old, was found to be infected with leprosy within the family of a drug withdrawal patient who was in near contact for 1 year, although multivariate testing was not statistically significant (p-value: > 0.05).
Conclusion: Increasing compliance through health education and motivation of patients and families, also monitoring medication taking by health service staff, groups of former patients, and cadres.