ABSTRACT
The shift of the paradigm of rehabilitation to Community-Based Socio-economic Rehabilitation has paucity of literature to support the bases. This study aimed at determining the sources and distribution of household income and the pattern of household expenditure of leprosy disables and normal persons living in Virgwi, a leprosy village settlement in Adamawa State of Nigeria. All the household heads within the village were interviewed using standard semistructured questionnaire and analysed using the Microsoft Excel analysis tool pack. The median age of the respondents were 45�14 years for normal persons and 50�12 years for the disabled persons. Most of them were farmers (80% of normal, 90% of disables) with no formal education (60% of normal, 67% of disables). The mean household income of the normal persons (N200,855.38 � N154,729.34) was found to be higher than that of the leprosy disabled persons (N121,903.94 � N148,821.45) by about 40% and the household income distribution was found to be more skewed among the leprosy disabled persons (Gini index = 0.49) than among the normal persons (Gini index = 0.35). Yet, their pattern of expenditure was found to be similar, with spending on food being the largest (51% for normal and 62% for disabled persons). Special socio-economic programme is therefore justified and recommended for the disabled persons to reduce the income inequalities amongst them.