Epilepsy and Education in developing countries: a survey of school teachers’ knowledge about epilepsy and their attitude towards students with epilepsy in Northwestern Nigeria

Abstract

IntroductionStudents living with epilepsy still find themselves confronted with social barriers that prevent them from academic achievements.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate knowledge and attitudes of school teachers and to determine the factors associated with good knowledge and positive attitude among nursery, primary and secondary school teachers in Kano, Northwestern Nigeria.MethodsA 20-item validated semi-structured questionnaire was self-administered to 200 teachers, selected through multistage sampling technique, in Kano, Northwestern Nigeria.ResultsThe respondents comprised 124 (62%) males and 76(38%) females. Their age ranged between 17 and 55 with a median age of 26 years. All the respondents have heard or read about epilepsy, 13% have had students with epilepsy in their classes before, fifty one (25.5%) of them would object to having an epileptic child in their class. To one hundred and seventy one (85.5%) all seizures were convulsive, 81% of them admitted to not havingadequate knowledge of the initial procedure should their student develop epileptic seizure, 60% believed that epileptic student should be separated from non-epileptic students in the classroom and 44.5% of them preferred alternative medicine. Overall, fifty nine (29.5%) teachers had fair to good knowledge about epilepsy. and one hundred and sixty four (82%) had positive attitude to students with epilepsy. Statistically significant association was found between level of education attained by the respondents and good knowledge about epilepsy as well as between female gender and good attitude. However, none of the variables was statistically significant predictor of knowledge or attitude among the respondents.ConclusionThere was low level of knowledge and misconceptions about epilepsy but fair attitude towards epileptic students in Northwestern Nigeria. Higher level of education of the teachers was significantly associated with good attitude.

Epilepsy awareness, knowledge and attitudes among secondary school teachers in Montenegro

“…Other studies found similarly unsatisfactory responses concerning first aid measures in children with epilepsy [5,7,15,19,20,22,23]. In undeveloped countries, these percentages were even higher, like a study from Nigeria, according to which over 80% of teachers were not familiar with first aid management of a seizing child [8]. In Montenegro, paramedics are always called by school staff in any case of emergency, especially seizures.…”

“…Most questions were designed as a choice from "yes, " "no, " or "not familiar with the disease, " while questions regarding etiology of epilepsy, clinical manifestations of an attack, and first aid management permitted multiple answers. The questions were derived from the questionnaires used in previous studies that quantified the knowledge, attitudes, and practice towards epilepsy among selected populations [7][8][9][10]. The questionnaire was translated into Montenegrin from the English version and went through translation and back-translation.…”

Knowledge and Attitude toward Epilepsy of Close Family Members of People with Epilepsy in North of Iran

“…The knowledge score was further categorized as poor (0–5), fair (6–10), or good (11–15). The attitude score was categorized as negative (0–5) or positive (6–10) [21, 24–26]. …”

Knowledge of and Attitude Towards Epilepsy Among Women in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

“…Although, several studies have reported high level of awareness in various population, the reported misconceptions, religious and cultural beliefs about the cause and management of epilepsy and stigma experience of people with epilepsy have made the life of these people miserable indicating urgent need to address these research findings [15][16][17]. Community-based education is reportedly very useful in correcting these ignorance, misconceptions, negative religious and cultural beliefs about the disease [18,19]. Health workers with targeted training about such disease will be able to carry out this community health education among community members that include opinion leaders (traditional rulers, religious leaders), the youth or the elderly [20,21].…”