Resumo

MONTENEGRO VALERA, Isora; PRIOR GARCIA, Ada de las Mercedes; URIBE-ECHEVERRIA DELGADO, Aida Iris  e  DURAN MARRERO, Kárel. Knowledge of the population about leprosy. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2006, vol.22, n.4. ISSN 0864-2125.

An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was undertaken to investigate the level of knowledge of the population about leprosy in Limonar municipality from March to December, 2002. 395 patients over 15 participated in the study. They were selected from the population of the municipality by a multistage design that included stratification and cluster. The data were processed by the SPSS-10 statistical system. Statistical techniques as the Chi square test were used to explore the significant association among the variables. It was concluded that there is lack of knowledge about the disease, since only 17.97 % of the population showed an adequate knowledge. A significant relation was found among knowledge, the female sex and the educational level. According to these results, the target hearings are recommended for an effective educative intervention at the primary health care level in this municipality.

Palavras-chave : Leprosy; population; primary health care..