STEP: an intervention to address the issue of stigma related to leprosy in Southern Nepal

Abstract

This paper focuses primarily on the extent to which a Stigma Elimination Programme (STEP) affected the social participation of people affected by leprosy in southern Nepal. The Participation Scale (popularly known as The P Scale) was applied to compare leprosy affected people who participated in STEP groups with a control group comprising leprosy affected people who lived in villages where STEP had not been implemented. It was found that STEP participants had significantly higher levels of participation compared with controls and that their levels of social participation were higher than would be expected even for the general population. It was also found that leprosy affected people without visible deformity or ulceration (whether in the STEP group or not) do not appear to suffer participation restriction in southern Nepal.