Mean age-at-onset of leprosy in libya

ABSTRACT

The mean age-at-onset of leprosy was investigated restrospectively in 154 Libyan [133 males, 21 females]. The overall mean age-at-onset was 32.91 +/- 14.69 year and no significant difference was noted between males and females [33.64 +/- 14.82 vs 27.32 +/- 13.79 years, P = 0.063]. Majority of the patients [106/154, 68.8%] had age-at-onset between >10-40 years. The peak incidence of 33.08% [44/133] in males and 38.09% [8/21] in females were in the age range of >20-40 years. The lowest age-at-onset was 7 years in a male patient with Neuritic Leprosy [NL], while the highest age-at-onset was 84 years in also a male patient but with Lepromatous Leprosy [LL]. According to the type of leprosy, no significant differences were observed between males and females for mean age-at-onset in LL, Borderline Lepromatous [BL] and Borderline Borderline [BB] [P>0.05], while it was significant in Borderline Tuberculoid [BT] [P<.05] and NL [P<0.01]. Comparison of our results with similar data reported from other countries indicated that age-at-onset of leprosy differ significantly from region to region of the world