Ethiopian teachers: their knowledge, attitude and practice towards epilepsy.

Meron Awraris Gebrewold,Fikre Enquselassie,Seid Ali Gugssa,Redda Teklehaimanot

doi:10.1186/s12883-016-0690-4

Meron Awraris Gebrewold, Fikre Enquselassie + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-016-0690-4

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Journal: BMC Neurology	Publication Date: Sep 8, 2016
Citations: 37	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Addis Ababa University

Abstract

BackgroundIn Ethiopia where the burden of epilepsy is highest among school age children and teenagers, and where people with epilepsy (PWE) and their relatives suffers from high level of perceived stigma, there had not been any study that assessed the knowledge, attitude and practice of teachers towards PWE. This study aims to assess and understand the social and demographic determinants of knowledge, attitude and practice of teachers towards PLW in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.MethodsMultistage cluster sampling procedure was used to identify twenty schools from three sub cities of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Standardized self administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 845 volunteer teachers in the pre identified schools. Frequencies were used to characterize the demographic variables while multiple response frequencies were used to characterize the multiple response variable sets. Non-parametric statistical methods were used to describe the association among the demographic variables of interest and the count sums of multiple response variables which were grouped into biologically and culturally plausible responses.ResultsThe most common biologically plausible responses were: brain diseases (26.5 %) from causes, allow my offspring to play with PWE (19.1 %) from attitude, protect the subject from injury (20.4 %) from first aid measures and seek help from medical doctors (52.2 %) from epilepsy treatment. On the contrary, the most common culturally plausible responses were: psychiatric illness (12.9 %) from causes, epilepsy be cured before attendance to school (21.6 %) from attitude, smelling the smoke of struck match (14.2 %) from first aid measures and Holy water treatment (20.3 %) from epilepsy treatment suggestions. The biologically and culturally plausible responses were negatively correlated. Level of education was positively associated with biologically plausible responses while teaching experience was negatively correlated with culturally plausible responses.ConclusionA high percentage of teachers in Addis Ababa considered epilepsy as a psychiatric illness closely linked to insanity. This explains their suggestions of Holy water treatment and Church healing sessions as epilepsy remedies. This is in agreement with Ethiopian culture, in which evil spirit and insanity are believed to be better treated by religious remedies than with modern medical treatments. Incorporating special needs educational training courses in the curriculum of teachers training may help them shift their knowledge, attitudes and practices from that of the culturally plausible to biologically plausible one.

Highlights

In Ethiopia where the burden of epilepsy is highest among school age children and teenagers, and where people with epilepsy (PWE) and their relatives suffers from high level of perceived stigma, there had not been any study that assessed the knowledge, attitude and practice of teachers towards PWE
Twenty four teachers (2.8 %) were excluded from the final analysis as they had a history of epilepsy
The most common non-stigmatizing responses were: Epilepsy could be cured or controlled (14.8 %) allow my offspring to play with PWE (19.1 %), and allow my child to marry PWE (7.5 %)

Summary

Introduction

In Ethiopia where the burden of epilepsy is highest among school age children and teenagers, and where people with epilepsy (PWE) and their relatives suffers from high level of perceived stigma, there had not been any study that assessed the knowledge, attitude and practice of teachers towards PWE. Epilepsy stigma is especially prevalent in developing countries, and its dire social, psychological and economic consequences have become a major public health problem, magnifying the disability of epilepsy itself [2, 3]. According to a large community based Epidemiological study, the incidence and prevalence of epilepsy in Ethiopia were estimated to be 64/100,000/year and 5.2/1000, respectively [6, 7]. More than 85 % of PWE in Ethiopia do not receive epilepsy treatment. Ninety percent of the untreated were unaware of the existence of treatment for epilepsy, while only 4 % of them cited cost as a reason for not receiving treatment [8]

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