School Performance of Nigerian Adolescents with Epilepsy

Abstract

Summary: Purpose:The study assessed the school performance of Nigerian adolescents with epilepsy compared with healthy controls and examined the variables correlating with their academic difficulties.Methods: The school grades of adolescents with epilepsy aged 12 to 18 years (n = 73) over the past academic year were compared with the grades of their classmates of the same age and gender. Risk factors possibly associated with school performance, such as adolescent variables (age, gender, perceived stigma, attitude toward epilepsy, and psychopathology), seizure variables (age at onset of illness, years of illness, types of seizures, and frequency of seizures per month), drug variables [types of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), number of AEDs and side effects of AEDs], and family variables (family's socioeconomic status, family functioning, caretakers' psychopathology, and caretakers' perceived stigma) were assessed. Results:The mean school grades of adolescents with epilepsy are significantly lower than are those of their healthy controls (p < 0.001) in all the subjects. The variables that significantly predict poor school performance in adolescents with epilepsy include psychopathology in the caretaker (p < 0.001), adolescents' perceived poor family functioning (p = 0.002), adolescents' attitude toward the illness (p = 0.001), adolescents' felt stigma (p = 0.002), externalizing symptoms in the adolescents (p = 0.004), and duration of illness (p = 0.024).Conclusions: The determinants of poor school performance in adolescents with epilepsy in Nigeria are multivariate, with psychosocial factors most important. These should be noted for early identification and screening of those children at greatest risk for academic failure and the greatest need for appropriate educational remediation services.

Epilepsy and its effects on children and families in rural Uganda

“…in a very different situation from these village children. Nigerian children, with treated epilepsy, attending primary school, demonstrate no gross differences from their peers 14 , whereas the poor academic performance of some Nigerian adolescents with epilepsy was attributed to familial psychosocial problems or their own adverse reaction to the diagnosis 15 . The possible impact of epilepsy on school attendance or performance needs to be considered in its local context, and compared with 'typical progress' in rural primary schools 16 .…”

Social consequences of epilepsy: A study of 231 Nigerian patients

“…[14] Consequently, unemployment and underemployment are more common among PWE. [12] In addition, studies have shown that epilepsy affects the intellectual abilities of PWE, which may have a negative effect on the overall school performance, [16][17][18][19] and factors associated with poor intelligence include seizure type; [16] seizure frequency, long duration of epilepsy, early age of onset of seizure 17 ; and status epilepticus. [16] In china, epilepsy diminishes the prospect of marriage, especially for women, [20] and in China and India it is commonly viewed as a reason for prohibiting and annulling marriages.…”

School drop out and fallout from idiopathic epilepsy in rural Sri Lanka

“…Dutch study of epilepsy in childhood (DuSECh) (2003) revealed that despite similar intelligence and educational background 51% of children with idiopathic epilepsy required special educational assistance, compared with 27% of healthy control subjects 5 . Nigerian investigators observed that the mean school grades of adolescents with epilepsy is significantly lower than are those of their healthy controls 6 .…”

“…Disease related factors such as early onset seizures, long duration of epilepsy 6 , partial onset seizures, partial seizures with secondary generalisation 11 , and adverse effects of medication 12 have been implicated by some authors. Psychosocial factors like stigma, the child feeling different to others, overprotection, lack of awareness by the parents and teachers 10 have been attributed by others.…”