A study on gender differences in newly detected leprosy cases in Sichuan, China, 2000-2015.

BACKGROUND

Many researches on gender differences in leprosy found that female patients were detected with the disease later and had more serious disabilities than male patients. We analyzed the gender differences related to epidemiological characteristics of new leprosy cases detected from 2000 to 2015 in Sichuan Province, China.

METHODS

A retrospective study was undertaken to analyze the gender differences with respect to age, delay in disease detection, the main modes of detection, and disability grade. The chi-squared test and t test were applied for the comparison using Epi Info 7.2 with a significance level of a = 0.05. The data were collected from the Leprosy Management Information System in China.

RESULTS

A total of 2900 new leprosy cases were detected from 2000 to 2015, of whom 2075 (71.6%) were male and 825 (28.4%) were female with a gender ratio of 2.5. The gender ratio of patients aged 15-30 was significantly lower than that of patients aged 31-45 and 46-60. Male cases were older than female cases when they were detected. The proportion of Grade 2 Disability (G2D) among men (20.6%) was significantly higher than that among women (17.3%). The average period of delay in detection among male cases was similar with that among females cases.

CONCLUSIONS

Gender-related differences existed among the leprosy cases detected from 2000 to 2015. Female patients were younger than male patients. The detection of leprosy in women was not later than in the case of men. The disability situation in men was more serious than in women.