ASSESSMENT OF GENDER AND AGE IN DEVELOPING LEPROSY: A LOGISTIC REGRESSION ANALYSIS

Govt. of India has declared elimination of leprosy during December 2005 and achieved the goal set as <1 per ten thousand population at National level. To assess the elimination of leprosy and to devise any policy, Ministry of Health and family Welfare (MOHFW) desired to have a large scale survey. Since no standard methodology was available for estimation of leprosy which is time and cost effective, a pilot study using inverse sampling was conducted in Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh, India by National Institute of Medical Statistics, Indian Council of Medical Research with the objective to evolve inverse sampling for estimation of disease burden of leprosy to be adopted at National level. This paper presents the findings of the logistic regression analysis in assessing the age and gender factors associated with leprosy. Analysis reveals that males and age group 21-40 years are at risk in developing leprosy and the risk in males is 2.8 times more as compared to females (OR=2.8, p= 0.025, 95% CI= 1.1 - 7.2). The risk of developing leprosy in age group 21-40 is 4.6 times more as compared to less than 20 yrs. ( OR=4.6 p= .005, 95%CI = 1.6 – 13.6).