The onset age of leprosy was studied in 973 cases (686 male and 287 female) of
out-patients at the Chronic ,Disease Laboratory, Catholic Medical College in Seoul, and
in 1,646 arrested cases (920 male and 726 female) of the patients in settlement villages
of Seoul, Gyeonggi province and Gangwon province. The results of the study were as
follows :
1. The range of onset age was from 5 to 76 years old. The mean onset age was 26.4±
12.3 years for out-patients and 20.2±7.7 years for the Patients in settlement villages.
The propertion of onset age under 20 was 34.7 percent for out-Patients and 54.7 per
cent for the patients in settlement villages. The proportion of onset age over 40 was
14.6 percent for out-patients and 1.8 percent for the patients in settlement villages.
2. There was a significant difference in the mean onset age of males vs. females in the
out-patient group as compared with group living in settlement villages. For out-patients,
the mean onset age for females was 28.1±13.9 years, for males 25.6±11,5 years. But in
the patients living in settlement villages, the mean onset age was 20.7±7.8 years for
males and 19.7±7.7 years for females.
3. The mean onset age of out-patients was 24.3±12.0 years in T-type (earlist among
all types for out-patients), 26.5±11.4 years in L-type, 28.4±13.9 years in I-group and
30.1±12.5 years in B-group. There was a significant difference between types and
groups. The mean onset age of Patients in settlement villages was 13.3 ±6.6 years in
I-group (earlist among all types for settlement villages), 19.0±7.3 years in T-type and
20.7±7.8 years in L-type. There was a significant difference between T-type and
L-type.
4. There was a significant difference between onset age for females v.s. males. For
males and females of the patients in settlement villages, there was a slight significant
difference of onset age between L-type and T-type. Thus, there seemed to be
relationship between onset age, sex and type of leprosy.
5. The mean onset age of out-patients by birth place was 24.4±11.4 clears for
Gyeongsang Provinces(earlist among all others), 25.6±11.2 years for Cholla Provinces,
:27.8±14.0 clears for Seoul, Gyeonggi province and Gangwon province, and 32.0±12.9
years for Cheju Island and North Korea, Japan and China, a significant difference.
However, in the case of settlement villagers, no significant difference was found
between birth place and onset age.
6. There were few cases of onset age under 9 years in Korea, which is located in the
temperate zone. A small number of cases in this age group were also observed in the
high endemic areas of the United States and in Goa of India. But in the Philippines and
Burma, located in the tropic zone, cases with onset age in the group under 9 years
were significantly higher In the case of the onset age group of 10 to 19 years, the
incident rate in Korea and the Philippines was higher than in the high endemic areas of
the United States and in Goa of India. In the case of the onset age group from 20 to 29
years, the incident rate in Korea was higher than in the other countries. In the case of
the onset age group over 30 years, the incident rate in Korea was similar with that of
the Philippines, and much lower than that of the high endemic areas of the United
States and Goa of India.
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