School Teachers’ Knowledge and Attitude toward School Students with Epilepsy

Abstract

Background: Epilepsy is a chronic disorder of the central nervous system that affects people of all ages worldwide. Objectives: to measure schoolteacher’s perception of epilepsy in school children in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2018. Methods: an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was done and data was collected by online and manual survey from (476) teachers chosen by quota sampling technique. The data was analyzed by using SPSS. Scale of level of knowledge in Table 1. Results: Most of the teachers had moderate and good knowledge (81%); females had better knowledge (85%); teachers with higher educational level had better knowledge (92%) and teachers with more years of experience had better knowledge (83%). Most of the teachers feel sympathy toward students with epilepsy (67%). Most of the teachers had moderate and good attitude (84%). Those who were 40 years or above had a better attitude (88%). About half the teachers knew about epilepsy from their friends (45%). Most of the teachers had poor practice (85%). Conclusion: Our study revealed that the majority of the teachers had moderate and good knowledge and attitude while only a few teachers had moderate and good practice. Teachers’ age and years of experience are shown to be factors in acquiring knowledge. It was found that teachers’ age has a significant effect on their attitude and teachers with higher educational level had better attitude. Teachers’ gender and educational level appeared to have a significant effect on their knowledge. Key words: Teachers, Knowledge, Attitude, Students, Epilepsy, Saudi Arabia