Disability Grading Survey – available in English, French and Portuguese - deadline extended to 17th February

Leprosy Mailing List – February 9^th, 2012 

Ref.:    Disability Grading Survey – available in English, French and Portuguese - deadline extended to 17^th February

From:  C Smith, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

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Salvatore,

We have had an excellent response to the Survey on disability grading – so far 237 people have completed it.  I would like to extend the deadline to 17^th February for anyone who has still to complete the survey – it is available in English, French and Portuguese.

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~sme577/Leprosy  (English)

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~sme577/Leprosy%20French/

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~sme577/Leprosy%20Portuguese/

I have asked a panel of experts to give their answers and I will circulate this with the survey finding on 24^th February.

Many thanks,

Cairns Smith.

School of Medicine and Dentistry,

University of Aberdeen,

Polwarth Building,

Foresterhill,

Aberdeen AB25 2ZD,

Scotland, UK

Telephone - (44) 1224 437266

Email: w.c.s.smith(at)abdn.ac.uk

Further information

Accurate assessment of disability due to leprosy using the WHO Disability Grading is important.  It is used to monitor diagnosis (it indicates whether diagnosis is early or late) and it is used as an indicator of the effectiveness of treatment (the progress of patients during MDT is monitored using the WHO disability grading).   

The WHO disability grade is a simple method to assess impairments in the Hands, Eyes and Feet of patients taking MDT.  It is described in the Operational Guidelines for the Enhanced Global Strategy (2011-2015) – see page 22 – 25.  The overall WHO Disability Grade (the WHO maximum Disability Grade) should be recorded for each patient, but it is also recommended that a patient’s progress through treatment should be assessed using the EHF score. The EHF score is when the grading for both eyes, both hands and both feet are added together.  

It is important that the WHO Disability Grades are accurate and reliable.  There is wide variation in the disability grading between and within countries.  This may be due to real differences or due to differences in the way the Grading is implemented.   We would like to check to see if disability assessments are conducted and recorded in the same way everywhere. To help assess this situation, we would like as many people as possible to complete the following 20 questions (your answers will be completely anonymous).  We will circulate the answers on the LML

Original English:  http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~sme577/Leprosy