Knowledge of, attitudes toward, and perceptions of epilepsy among university students in Yemen

Al-Eryani, Bilguis M.; Saied, Khaled Ghilan; Alddin, Reem Sharaf; Al-Sobaihi, Saber; Lutf, Wesam; Al-Taiar, Abdullah

doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2015.08.011

Cited by 18 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 62 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…They often isolate themselves, as epilepsy disrupts their social contacts, particularly children attending school and their contacts with other children. Negative attitudes towards children with epilepsy in school were previously reported in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and India amongst other places [49][50][51][52][53].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Traditional practices and perceptions of epilepsy among people in Roma communities in Bulgaria

Antimov

Tournev

Zhelyazkova

et al. 2020

Epilepsy & Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose: We attempted to identify cultural aspects of epilepsy among the Roma community in Bulgaria by elucidating cultural beliefs, traditional treatments, and potential markers of stigma.Methods: We established representative discussion groups among five distinct Roma subgroups (Lom, Kalderas, Thracian Tinsmiths (Tinkers), Kyustendil Xoroxane and Kopanari) from different Bulgarian regions. Data about local beliefs and treatment strategies were gathered.Results: Most people were familiar with convulsions but non-convulsive focal seizures were seen not as epileptic but mainly as a "mental problem". Beliefs about putative etiologies for epilepsy were not uniform as some considered environmental and external factors such as high environmental temperatures, electric shocks, loud music, and fever as causes of seizures while others listed bad experiences, stress, trauma, fear and fright as possible causes. Epilepsy was seen by some as a divine punishment or resulting from black magic. Most considered epilepsy shameful and an obstacle to children attending school. Despite local differences, there was a uniform belief that epilepsy is incurable by Western medicine and people usually resort to traditional healers. A variety of rituals performed by local healers to treat epilepsy were described.Discussion: Misconceptions about epilepsy may contribute to stigmatization in this population; this may in turn contribute to a high treatment gap in this group. As a result, the majority of Roma children with epilepsy leave school early, are greatly limited in their choice of spouse (particularly girls), and marriages often occur between people with epilepsy or those with a family history of epilepsy.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Traditional practices and perceptions of epilepsy among people in Roma communities in Bulgaria

Antimov

Tournev

Zhelyazkova

et al. 2020

Epilepsy & Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This proportion was higher than that of India (34%) [5], Cameroon (12.4%, 25.3%) [12, 13], Italy (20%) [11], and Nigeria (22.5%) [9] and lower than that of Malaysia (67%) [6]. The proportion of our participants who believed that epilepsy is a contagious disease (68.8%) was higher than that of India (14%) [5], Cameroon (57.96%, 49.89%) [12, 13], Italy (17%) [11], Nigeria (40.6%) [9], and Yemen (2.1%) [15]. More than four-fifths (85.7%) of our students preferred allopathic medicines to treat epilepsy, but 31% believed in Ayurvedic treatment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Knowledge, Beliefs, and Practices on Epilepsy among High School Students of Central Nepal

Thapa

Bhandari

Shrestha

et al. 2017

Epilepsy Research and Treatment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction. Epilepsy continues to increase worldwide but, unfortunately, many high school students have inadequate knowledge of and negative beliefs towards the disease. We aimed to assess the knowledge, beliefs, and practices of epilepsy among high school students of Central Nepal. Materials and Methods. A cross-sectional study was performed involving 1360 high school students from 33 private schools across Bharatpur, from June 2013 to July 2013, to assess their knowledge, beliefs, and practices (KBP) on epilepsy using a standardized questionnaire. The differences in mean KBP scores between different sexes, religions, and those personally knowing versus not knowing someone with epilepsy were assessed using independent t-tests; a Pearson correlation was calculated to assess the relationship between KBP scores and age. Results. Of 1360 participants, 79 (5.8%) students had never heard or read about epilepsy and were consequently excluded from statistical analysis. Only 261 out of 1360 (19.2%) had personally known someone with epilepsy. The mean KBP scores were 5.0/8, 7.4/12, and 1.7/3, respectively. Statistically significant differences were only observed in the knowledge component of the KBP score; female scored higher than males (p < 0.001) and, interestingly, students who had personally known a person with epilepsy actually knew less than those who had not known one (p = 0.018). We also found a significant negative correlation between knowledge and age (p = 0.003). Conclusions. The overall knowledge, beliefs, and practices appear to be inadequate, emphasizing the need for further educational intervention.

show abstract

“…Similarly, previous studies conducted in developing countries reached to the same conclusion. 14,15,32,33 This could be rationalized by the fact that the data were collected from students at different years of education, including the first year. Therefore, those students might not yet have gained a deep insight into scientific knowledge regarding the causes of epilepsy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Participants from other studies carry the same view toward the disorder, as they do not want to marry person with epilepsy. 13,14,22,29,41 The respondents in one study suggested person with epilepsy should not have children. 13 This can be explained as one third of participants in this study believed it to be a hereditary disease, which means few would accept to be engaged to someone with epilepsy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6,[11][12][13] Many studies explored the level of public knowledge regarding epilepsy and found that there was a serious lack of knowledge about this disorder. [14][15][16][17] A cross-sectional study conducted by Mustapha et al 18 in Nigeria found that school teachers had significant lack of knowledge about epilepsy and its first aids measure. In general, the lack of knowledge about disease itself contributes to the negative attitudes and beliefs about people with epilepsy, with prejudice and discrimination from the general population as consequences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Knowledge and Attitudes of Jordanian University Students Toward Epilepsy: A Cross-Sectional Comparison Study

Alhalaiqa

Omari

Batiha

et al. 2017

Int Q Community Health Educ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

People with epilepsy face stigma which arguably causes more suffering than the disease itself. The purpose of this study is to compare the knowledge and attitudes of nursing with nonnursing Jordanian university students toward epilepsy. A cross-sectional comparative, quantitative study was conducted. A newly structured questionnaire was developed to collect related data. The results revealed that there were 145(30.5%) nursing students and 331 (69.5%) nonnursing students with mean age of the participants was 22.9 years ( SD = 4.7) and 60% of them were men. Although the majority of the Jordanian university students were aware of epilepsy, their knowledge varied according to their major subject of study. Nursing students possessed a good knowledge of, and more positive attitudes toward, epilepsy compared with other nonnursing students. Therefore, universities are required to improve the knowledge of their students about epilepsy by integrating education about health and first aid course into their curriculum.

show abstract

Knowledge of, attitudes toward, and perceptions of epilepsy among university students in Yemen

Cited by 18 publications

References 62 publications

Traditional practices and perceptions of epilepsy among people in Roma communities in Bulgaria

Traditional practices and perceptions of epilepsy among people in Roma communities in Bulgaria

Knowledge, Beliefs, and Practices on Epilepsy among High School Students of Central Nepal

Knowledge and Attitudes of Jordanian University Students Toward Epilepsy: A Cross-Sectional Comparison Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About