Patients help other patients: Qualitative study on a longstanding community cooperative to tackle leprosy in India.
BACKGROUND:Although leprosy is portrayed as a disappearing disease, leprosy affected persons in India are still suffering massively. Even further, nearly 60% of the world's newly detected cases are appearing from India alone. The problem has exacerbated due to the drastic decrease of global fun...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:666490a2c4134d35a21cb22786189e5b 2023-05-15T15:14:48+02:00 Patients help other patients: Qualitative study on a longstanding community cooperative to tackle leprosy in India. Seong Hye Jung Hee Won Han Hyeonseok Koh Soo-Young Yu Nobutoshi Nawa Ayako Morita Ken Ing Cherng Ong Masamine Jimba Juhwan Oh 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008016 https://doaj.org/article/666490a2c4134d35a21cb22786189e5b EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008016 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0008016 https://doaj.org/article/666490a2c4134d35a21cb22786189e5b PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 14, Iss 1, p e0008016 (2020) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008016 2022-12-31T13:18:00Z BACKGROUND:Although leprosy is portrayed as a disappearing disease, leprosy affected persons in India are still suffering massively. Even further, nearly 60% of the world's newly detected cases are appearing from India alone. The problem has exacerbated due to the drastic decrease of global funding after India's official declaration of 'elimination', which did not foster the actual pain of patients beyond prevalence. Leprosy patients have hardships in their lives due to disabilities, stigma and poverty; thus, they require sustained, continuous care even after release from treatment. Yet, current interventions mostly have a vertical, short-term approach, not showing much progress in lightening the burden of leprosy. In contrast, Little Flower Hospital Community (LFHC) in India has been remarkably providing holistic care for thousands of leprosy patients for 35 years. However, there has not been any research conducted to uncover the underlying factors of this longstanding leprosy control model. Therefore, this research explores the in-depth contextual attributes of this hospital community that has been able to successfully provide sustainable care for a long time even without excessive external funds. METHODS AND FINDINGS:This qualitative research used a grounded theory approach, involving 28 in-depth interviews of 11 patients, 13 workers, and 4 board members from the hospital. The interview data were inductively analyzed to examine the contextual factors of the hospital's sustainability. Open coding, axial coding and selective coding were conducted, and Glaser's Six C's model was used to create a theoretical model of the sustainability of LFHC. The fundamental cause of the sustainability was the leprosy patients' strong craving for life with dignity, despite the isolation from the society. The desire resulted in a bottom-up formation of a 'consumer-provider cooperative', where patients mutually support each other with basic treatment learned from experience. The profits earned from the patients' occupational ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 14 1 e0008016 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Seong Hye Jung Hee Won Han Hyeonseok Koh Soo-Young Yu Nobutoshi Nawa Ayako Morita Ken Ing Cherng Ong Masamine Jimba Juhwan Oh Patients help other patients: Qualitative study on a longstanding community cooperative to tackle leprosy in India. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
BACKGROUND:Although leprosy is portrayed as a disappearing disease, leprosy affected persons in India are still suffering massively. Even further, nearly 60% of the world's newly detected cases are appearing from India alone. The problem has exacerbated due to the drastic decrease of global funding after India's official declaration of 'elimination', which did not foster the actual pain of patients beyond prevalence. Leprosy patients have hardships in their lives due to disabilities, stigma and poverty; thus, they require sustained, continuous care even after release from treatment. Yet, current interventions mostly have a vertical, short-term approach, not showing much progress in lightening the burden of leprosy. In contrast, Little Flower Hospital Community (LFHC) in India has been remarkably providing holistic care for thousands of leprosy patients for 35 years. However, there has not been any research conducted to uncover the underlying factors of this longstanding leprosy control model. Therefore, this research explores the in-depth contextual attributes of this hospital community that has been able to successfully provide sustainable care for a long time even without excessive external funds. METHODS AND FINDINGS:This qualitative research used a grounded theory approach, involving 28 in-depth interviews of 11 patients, 13 workers, and 4 board members from the hospital. The interview data were inductively analyzed to examine the contextual factors of the hospital's sustainability. Open coding, axial coding and selective coding were conducted, and Glaser's Six C's model was used to create a theoretical model of the sustainability of LFHC. The fundamental cause of the sustainability was the leprosy patients' strong craving for life with dignity, despite the isolation from the society. The desire resulted in a bottom-up formation of a 'consumer-provider cooperative', where patients mutually support each other with basic treatment learned from experience. The profits earned from the patients' occupational ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Seong Hye Jung Hee Won Han Hyeonseok Koh Soo-Young Yu Nobutoshi Nawa Ayako Morita Ken Ing Cherng Ong Masamine Jimba Juhwan Oh |
author_facet |
Seong Hye Jung Hee Won Han Hyeonseok Koh Soo-Young Yu Nobutoshi Nawa Ayako Morita Ken Ing Cherng Ong Masamine Jimba Juhwan Oh |
author_sort |
Seong Hye Jung |
title |
Patients help other patients: Qualitative study on a longstanding community cooperative to tackle leprosy in India. |
title_short |
Patients help other patients: Qualitative study on a longstanding community cooperative to tackle leprosy in India. |
title_full |
Patients help other patients: Qualitative study on a longstanding community cooperative to tackle leprosy in India. |
title_fullStr |
Patients help other patients: Qualitative study on a longstanding community cooperative to tackle leprosy in India. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Patients help other patients: Qualitative study on a longstanding community cooperative to tackle leprosy in India. |
title_sort |
patients help other patients: qualitative study on a longstanding community cooperative to tackle leprosy in india. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008016 https://doaj.org/article/666490a2c4134d35a21cb22786189e5b |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 14, Iss 1, p e0008016 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008016 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0008016 https://doaj.org/article/666490a2c4134d35a21cb22786189e5b |
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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008016 |
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PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
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e0008016 |
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