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Perception of epilepsy among the urban secondary school children of Bareilly district

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of knowledge about epilepsy among the students and the population in general, with consequent prejudice and discrimination toward epileptic patients. OBJECTIVES: Knowledge, behavior, attitude and myth toward epilepsy among urban school children in Bareilly district was st...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Joshi, Hari Shanker, Mahmood, Syed Esam, Bamel, Arjun, Agarwal, Ajay Kumar, Shaifali, Iram
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3345589/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22566726
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0972-2327.94996
Descripción
Sumario:BACKGROUND: There is a lack of knowledge about epilepsy among the students and the population in general, with consequent prejudice and discrimination toward epileptic patients. OBJECTIVES: Knowledge, behavior, attitude and myth toward epilepsy among urban school children in Bareilly district was studied. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among students of 10 randomly selected secondary schools of the urban areas in Bareilly district. A structured, pretested questionnaire was used to collect data regarding sociodemographic characteristics and assess the subject's knowledge, behavior, attitude and myth toward epilepsy. RESULTS: Of the 798 students (533 boys and 265 girls) studied, around 98.6% had heard of epilepsy. About 63.7% correctly thought that epilepsy is a brain disorder while 81.8% believed it to be a psychiatric disorder. Other prevalent misconceptions were that epilepsy is an inherited disorder (71.55%) and that the disease is transmitted by eating a nonvegetarian diet (49%). Most of them thought that epilepsy can be cured (69.3) and that an epileptic patient needs lifelong treatment (77.2). On witnessing a seizure, about 51.5% of the students would take the person to the hospital. Majority (72.31%) of the students thought that children with epilepsy should study in a special school. CONCLUSIONS: Although majority of the students had reasonable knowledge of epilepsy, myths and superstitions about the condition still prevail in a significant proportion of the urban school children. It may be worthwhile including awareness programs about epilepsy in school education to dispel misconceptions about epilepsy.