Awareness and Attitude among Nonmedical University Students on Epilepsy in Lebanon: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background Several studies addressed the awareness and knowledge of epilepsy among students and teachers that indicated unfavorable levels of awareness, but none in Lebanon. Aim The aim of this study is to determine the level of awareness and attitude toward epilepsy among nonmedical university students. Methods A survey-based questionnaire was conducted among 1,000 nonmedical students. SPSS was used for data analysis. Results Participants claimed 78.5% having some knowledge about epilepsy (78.5%), with only 20.1% of the participants attaining their knowledge through university courses. Alarmingly, negative beliefs were noticed in our study such as considering person with epilepsy (PWE) as disabled (34.9%), epilepsy is a genetic disorder (40.9%), and it would lead to insanity (43.1%). Moreover, participants think that a PWE is unable to get married (29.5%), nor have children (25.2%), and they would even refuse to marry someone with epilepsy (35.7%). On the other hand, participants showed some positive behaviors such as the fact that epilepsy is not contagious (81%), would accept to accompany a colleague with epilepsy (72.1%), and believing that PWE can succeed at jobs (82.2%). When it comes to providing first aid, wrong practices were reported such as believing that something should be placed in the mouth during a seizure to avoid biting their tongue (58.1%). Conclusion Lack of knowledge, acceptance, and first aid practices have been observed in our study. Thus, efforts in including epilepsy within university curriculums, as well as raising awareness different platforms and campaigns should be done, as the social burden is even higher on PWE.

Perception of the general population on Epilepsy and Antiepileptic drugs: A questionnaire-based study

“…In our current study also, a maximum number of participants had a positive attitude towards QOL, employment, marriage, giving birth, and revealing the epileptic history before marriage, congruent with other papers 2,10,20,21 .Unlike our analysis, most others discovered widespread negative attitudes about the aforementioned characteristics 5,8,10,[14][15][16]22,[26][27][28] .The dissimilarity shown by our answerers could be attributed to younger participants from urban and diverse locations, gradual public attitude change due to improved awareness, and sociocultural diversity. Our article suggests a potential link between agitated dancing to God and epilepsy.…”

“…The practice of providing iron rods to the patient was observed in a Villupuram-based study 10 .The majority (75-86%) of our poll-takers wrongly opined that they would provide water and contact the patient during an attack, akin to a study by Dhikale 10 . Nevertheless, only a lesser proportion of people in rural TN (5.3%) and Bangalore (13.5%) adopted such methods 5,15 .The practice of smelling the shoe during an epileptic attack was infrequent in the current study, compared to studies done in Central and North India and some other developing countries 2,14,16,27,32 . A study done among EP/CG found that educational interventions improve first-aid practices 33 .All these variations clearly state the cultural and geographic differences among people and their practices and the need to educate and counsel them.…”

“…According to Sharma et al, integrating spiritual healing traditions and medical practitioners at the local level may aid in early referral and the beginning of appropriate therapy 31 .Most of our surveyees believed in surgical treatment for epilepsy, similar to a work by Santhosh NS 7 . Nonetheless, in other investigations, the majority were unaware of the same 13,18,27,30 .…”

“…Only a few of our participants were aware of the AEDs, but in other groundworks, many of them were aware 2,27 . Two-thirds of our population felt AEDs were safe, but as per other articles, 60-80% feared the side effects 12,16,17 .Our subjects opined that epilepsy can be cured, which was identical to other explorations 7,8,16,26,30 .A higher percentage (83.7%) of our individuals preferred Ayurvedic medicine, compared to other studies in TN (42.3%) and Kerala (64.1%) 8,10,13 .…”