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Parental Knoweldge, Attitude, and Perception about Epilepsy and Sociocultural Barriers to Treatment

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The present study focused on assessing parental knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions about epilepsy as well as addressing the socio-cultural barriers to its treatment. METHODS: Data were collected from out-patient consultations in the neurology department of a tertiary refer...

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Autores principales: Rani, Akanksha, Thomas, Priya Treesa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Korean Epilepsy Society 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6706645/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31482058
http://dx.doi.org/10.14581/jer.19007
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author Rani, Akanksha
Thomas, Priya Treesa
author_facet Rani, Akanksha
Thomas, Priya Treesa
author_sort Rani, Akanksha
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The present study focused on assessing parental knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions about epilepsy as well as addressing the socio-cultural barriers to its treatment. METHODS: Data were collected from out-patient consultations in the neurology department of a tertiary referral center in South India. Parents of sixty children suffering from epilepsy in the age-group of 4–15 years were interviewed to explore their knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions about epilepsy. They were recruited in 2015 over a consecutive period of six months. The tools administered were: socio-demographic schedule; clinical profile; a knowledge, attitude, and perception questionnaire prepared by the researcher; and a few case studies with psychosocial interventions. RESULTS: The mean age of the parents who brought their children to the hospital was 37.2 years, with 71.7% being male, of which, 36% were educated up to secondary/intermediate level and were of lower socio-economic status. The mean age of the children with epilepsy was 8.4 years with 66.7% of them being male. Among them, 50% had the most commonly occurring generalized seizures and 26.7% had the co-morbid condition of cerebral palsy. Around 37.7% parents attributed the seizures to evil spirits or supernatural powers, 52.5% to mental illness, and 72.1% were influenced by their families to initially seek religio-spiritual or traditional treatment in desperation for a cure of the illness. In total, 91.8% of the parents visited holy places, made “mannats”, or prayed in worship for hours for their child’s recovery. CONCLUSIONS: Creating awareness about epilepsy is important to address the socio-cultural barriers to its treatment and improve help-seeking behavior.
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spelling pubmed-67066452019-09-03 Parental Knoweldge, Attitude, and Perception about Epilepsy and Sociocultural Barriers to Treatment Rani, Akanksha Thomas, Priya Treesa J Epilepsy Res Original Article BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The present study focused on assessing parental knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions about epilepsy as well as addressing the socio-cultural barriers to its treatment. METHODS: Data were collected from out-patient consultations in the neurology department of a tertiary referral center in South India. Parents of sixty children suffering from epilepsy in the age-group of 4–15 years were interviewed to explore their knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions about epilepsy. They were recruited in 2015 over a consecutive period of six months. The tools administered were: socio-demographic schedule; clinical profile; a knowledge, attitude, and perception questionnaire prepared by the researcher; and a few case studies with psychosocial interventions. RESULTS: The mean age of the parents who brought their children to the hospital was 37.2 years, with 71.7% being male, of which, 36% were educated up to secondary/intermediate level and were of lower socio-economic status. The mean age of the children with epilepsy was 8.4 years with 66.7% of them being male. Among them, 50% had the most commonly occurring generalized seizures and 26.7% had the co-morbid condition of cerebral palsy. Around 37.7% parents attributed the seizures to evil spirits or supernatural powers, 52.5% to mental illness, and 72.1% were influenced by their families to initially seek religio-spiritual or traditional treatment in desperation for a cure of the illness. In total, 91.8% of the parents visited holy places, made “mannats”, or prayed in worship for hours for their child’s recovery. CONCLUSIONS: Creating awareness about epilepsy is important to address the socio-cultural barriers to its treatment and improve help-seeking behavior. Korean Epilepsy Society 2019-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6706645/ /pubmed/31482058 http://dx.doi.org/10.14581/jer.19007 Text en Copyright © 2019 Korean Epilepsy Society This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Rani, Akanksha
Thomas, Priya Treesa
Parental Knoweldge, Attitude, and Perception about Epilepsy and Sociocultural Barriers to Treatment
title Parental Knoweldge, Attitude, and Perception about Epilepsy and Sociocultural Barriers to Treatment
title_full Parental Knoweldge, Attitude, and Perception about Epilepsy and Sociocultural Barriers to Treatment
title_fullStr Parental Knoweldge, Attitude, and Perception about Epilepsy and Sociocultural Barriers to Treatment
title_full_unstemmed Parental Knoweldge, Attitude, and Perception about Epilepsy and Sociocultural Barriers to Treatment
title_short Parental Knoweldge, Attitude, and Perception about Epilepsy and Sociocultural Barriers to Treatment
title_sort parental knoweldge, attitude, and perception about epilepsy and sociocultural barriers to treatment
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6706645/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31482058
http://dx.doi.org/10.14581/jer.19007
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