Knowledge and attitude of Attention-Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) among male primary school teachers, in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore teachers' knowledge about the ADHD, its origin, causes, and identify the main demographic variables affecting their knowledge. METHODS: The study was conducted among male school teachers of ten government primary schools that are found in different regions of Riyadh city, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We used a stratified random sampling technique to collect our sample with inclusion criteria of being male teachers who currently working in male government primary school and are directly involved on teaching of students. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software statistical program version 21. RESULTS: We received 400 response for our questionnaire, mostly younger than 40 years old. Most of teachers in this sample had a bachelor's degree, only 6% had diploma while 8% had a higher degree, while most of them had experience more than 5 years in teaching (74.2%). only 8%of teachers admitted that they had not heard about ADHD before. 78% of teachers had read about ADHD at least once before. This knowledge was more from reading books (32.8%) followed by reading internet websites (28.7%), TV/Media (14.6%) while magazine and social media represent (23.9%). Most of the teachers showed that they had attended courses/training about ADHD (76.7%) however only 40.4% of them thought that they had the enough information about the disease. 51.5% of teachers showed that they had already asked before to assess a child who was suspected to have ADHD and 65.3% had taught a child with the disease. CONCLUSION: From the results of this study, it is concluded that the knowledge regarding ADHD among elementary school teachers is suboptimal. Some teachers had misunderstanding about ADHD symptoms and general information, which indicated the further needing for courses to enhance this knowledge.