Introduction: The purpose of this study was to evaluate risk factors for physical disability at the moment of leprosy diagnosis. Methods: This is a retrospective, descriptive and exploratory investigation of 19,283 patients with leprosy, registered in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, between 2000 and 2005. Results: The risk of Grade 2 disability was 16.5-fold higher in patients with lepromatous leprosy, and 12.8-fold higher in patients presenting the borderline form, compared to patients presenting indeterminate leprosy. The occurrence of more than one thickened nerve increased the odds of a patient developing Grade 2 disability, 8.4-fold. Age <15 years, multibacillary leprosy and no formal education presented 7.0, 5.7 and 5.6 odds of developing physical disability, respectively. Conclusions: These factors should be considered as strong prognostic indicators in the development of physical disability at diagnosis.

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OBJECTIVE:To analyze predictive factors in the progression of the disability grade in patients with leprosy.METHODS: A retrospective cohort study followed up 595 patients with disability registered at a healthcare unit in the city of Belo Horizonte (Southeastern Brazil) from 1993 to 2003. Patients' sociodemographic and clinical information was collected from the respective medical records. Comparisons were made between the disability grade upon admission and at the end of treatment using a marginal homogeneity test. To determine factors associated with progression in the disability grade, univariate analysis (linear trend chi-square test) was employed, as well as multivariate analysis by means of the algorithm Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detector. RESULTS:Among the cases in which the disability grade was recorded upon admission and upon discharge, 43.2% of the patients who had grade 1 in the fi rst assessment progressed to grade 0. Among those who began with grade 2, 21.3% progressed to grade 0 and 20% progressed to grade 1. In the univariate analysis, the variables that proved to be statistically associated with progression in the disability grade were: neuritis, time elapsed until the occurrence of neuritis, number of damaged nerves, type of physiotherapy treatment and higher dose of prednisone. In the multivariate analysis, the main factor associated with the progression of disability was the disability grade upon admission. CONCLUSIONS:The results showed the importance of an early diagnosis of neuropathy as well as the effi cient association of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment, through disability prevention techniques and adequate doses of steroid.

This epidemiological investigation examines the impact of several environmental sanitation conditions and hygiene practices on diarrhea occurrence among children under five years of age living in an urban area. The case-control design was employed; 997 cases and 999 controls were included in the investigation. Cases were defined as children with diarrhea and controls were randomly selected among children under five years of age. After logistic regression adjustment, the following variables were found to be significantly associated with diarrhea: washing and purifying fruit and vegetables; presence of wastewater in the street; refuse storage, collection and disposal; domestic water reservoir conditions; feces disposal from swaddles; presence of vectors in the house and flooding in the lot. The estimates of the relative risks reached values up to 2.87. The present study revealed the feasibility of developing and implementing an adequate model to establish intervention priorities in the field of environmental sanitation. Key-words: Diarrhea. Hygiene practices. Model for priority setting. Urban refuse. Water supply.Resumo Esta investigação epidemiológica estuda o impacto das condições de saneamento ambiental e de práticas higiênicas sobre a ocorrência de diarréia entre crianças menores de 5 anos, residentes em uma área urbana. O delineamento caso-controle foi utilizado; 997 casos e 999 controles foram incluidos na investigação. Casos foram definidos como crianças com diarréia e controles foram selecionados, aleatoriamente, entre crianças com menos de 5 anos. Após ajustamento (regressão logística), as seguintes variáveis foram detectadas como significativamente associadas à diarréia: lavar e higienizar frutas e vegetais; presença de água de esgoto na rua; coleta, armazenagem e disposição do lixo; condições dos reservatórios domésticos de água; disposição das fezes de fraldas, presença de vetores nas casas e inundação do lote da casa. As estimativas pontuais do risco relativo alcançaram valores até 2,87. O presente estudo mostra a factibilidade de desenvolvimento e implementação de modelos adequados para estabelecer prioridades de intervenção no campo do saneamento ambiental. Palavras-chaves: Abastecimento de água. Diarréia. Lixo urbano. Modelo para estabelecer prioridades. Práticas higiênicas.

BackgroundOne of the most important drawbacks in visceral leishmaniasis (VL) population studies is the difficulty of diagnosing asymptomatic carriers. The aim of this study, conducted in an urban area in the Southeast of Brazil, was to evaluate the performance of serology to identify asymptomatic VL infection in participants selected from a cohort with a two-year follow-up period.MethodologyBlood samples were collected in 2001 from 136 cohort participants (97 positive and 39 negatives, PCR/hybridization carried out in 1999). They were clinically evaluated and none had progressed to disease from their asymptomatic state. As controls, blood samples from 22 control individuals and 8 patients with kala-azar were collected. Two molecular biology techniques (reference tests) were performed: PCR with Leishmania-generic primer followed by hybridization using L. infantum probe, and PCR with specific primer to L. donovani complex. Plasma samples were tested by ELISA using three different antigens: L. infantum and L. amazonensis crude antigens, and rK39 recombinant protein. Accuracy of the serological tests was evaluated using sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratio and ROC curve.FindingsThe presence of Leishmania was confirmed, by molecular techniques, in all kala-azar patients and in 117 (86%) of the 136 cohort participants. Kala-azar patients showed high reactivity in ELISAs, whereas asymptomatic individuals presented low reactivity against the antigens tested. When compared to molecular techniques, the L. amazonensis and L. infantum antigens showed higher sensitivity (49.6% and 41.0%, respectively) than rK39 (26.5%); however, the specificity of rK39 was higher (73.7%) than L. amazonensis (52.6%) and L. infantum antigens (36.8%). Moreover, there was low agreement among the different antigens used (kappa<0.10).ConclusionsSerological tests were inaccurate for diagnosing asymptomatic infections compared to molecular methods; this could lead to misclassification bias in population studies. Therefore, studies which have used serological assays to estimate prevalence, to evaluate intervention programs or to identify risk factors for Leishmania infection, may have had their results compromised.