Public awareness and attitudes towards epilepsy in Tehran, Iran

Abstract

BackgroundEpilepsy is a prototypical, stigmatised disorder. Numerous studies have been conducted regarding the public perception of epilepsy, but they are primarily from high-income western countries; few studies have taken place in low- to middle-income countries with a traditional culture and a religious orientation.ObjectiveThe public knowledge and attitudes towards epilepsy in Tehran, Iran, is studied.DesignA survey of 800 subjects ranging from 18 to 85 years was randomly chosen from households in Tehran in 2009. The questionnaire used was based on the Caveness and Gallup's studies conducted in the United States in 1949 and it has been used in numerous similar studies all over the world. The mean age of the participants was 37.5 years and 46.7% were female. Pearson's Chi-squared test was used for subgroup analyses.ResultsThe majority of subjects cited brain disorders as a cause of epilepsy, while 17% indicated the will of God as the cause. Most individuals were willing to work with a person with epilepsy, allow their children to play with a child with epilepsy, and allow people with epilepsy to use public transportation (78–82%). However, only 28% were willing to accept the marriage of a family member to someone with epilepsy.ConclusionThe knowledge and attitudes towards epilepsy are similar to those in Europe, with the exception of a much lower acceptance regarding marriage to a person with epilepsy. However, the low acceptance for marrying someone with epilepsy reveals the remaining misconceptions about the nature of epilepsy in Iran, despite the high educational level in the studied population. Therefore, informational efforts must be employed to change the perception of epilepsy.

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

“…A higher level of education and larger family size correlated with a higher percentage of correct responses to the knowledge questions. This result is consistent with findings of other study [32]. A relationship was found between increased level of education and the female gender with attitudes about epilepsy.…”

“…On the other hand, other studies in between different ethnic groups and school's teachers in Iran indicated that the level of awareness about epilepsy was quite high and teachers had positive attitude about epilepsy [4, 31]. Public awareness of epilepsy in Iran showed similar to studies conducted in high income western countries [32]. There was a significant association between an increase in knowledge score and an increase in family size and educational level in the present study that correlates with the findings of other studies [29, 34].…”

Community knowledge of and attitudes toward epilepsy in rural and urban Mukono district, Uganda: A cross-sectional study

“…The proportion of survey respondents objecting to a person with epilepsy marrying a close relative, are similar to those from some other sub Saharan African countries [26, 27] but lower compared to an earlier study from Cameroon [16]. Interestingly, there were no differences in response to this question related to survey respondent demographics among the study participants.…”

Genetic testing in the epilepsies—developments and dilemmas

“…Cultural, familial and individual variations in understanding of epilepsy, 59–62 heritability 63 and risk 64 also need to be addressed. People in families affected by epilepsy may have ‘personal theories of inheritance’ based on their perceptions of shared physical or personality traits among family members.…”