Knowledge, Attitudes and Beliefs about Epilepsy among Rural and Urban Populations in Cairo Governorate and Shebeen Elkoum District

Abstract

This study used a cross-sectional design aiming to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about epilepsy among rural and urban populations in Cairo Governorate as an urban area and Shebeen Elkoum district, as a rural area. The study was conducted at the outpatient clinics in Ain Shams University Hospital, which is situated in Cairo Governorate as an urban population; and Shebeen Elkoum University Hospital which is situated in Shebeen Elkoum district as rural population. The study population included 1320 individuals (males & females), 660 individuals from rural population, residing in Shebeen Elkoum district, and 660 individuals from urban population, residing in Cairo Governorate. They were recruited during their visit to the outpatient clinics, either alone or accompanied by others .They were chosen stratified random sample over a period of 11 weeks. Epileptic patients were excluded from this study. Two tools were used to collect data:- A questionnaire to assess participants’ demographic data which included age, sex, marital status, educational level and occupation. The questionnaire derived from literature reviews (Diamantopoulos et al., 2006., Daoud et al., 2007; Tuan et al., 2007) also dealt with population knowledge ,regarding causes of epilepsy, manifestations of the disease, , awareness and preference of treatment option and sources of their information about epilepsy. 2)Attitudes were measured with questions designed by Cohn( 1987) about willingness to socialize with persons with epilepsy, persons with epilepsy having jobs like other people, epilepsy as a mental illness, the danger of epileptic seizures while driving , also the sheet included their attitude toward what is to be done when a seizure or fit occurs (9 items). Results: revealed that, population with university education were more likely to exhibit positive attitudes toward the epileptic patients when compared to non-literate population (P< 0.001).The study concluded that knowledge about epilepsy is scant among rural population, and the majority of the negative attitudes toward epilepsy were significantly associated with the misunderstanding of epilepsy and can vary substantially by culture. This study recommended the development of public awareness strategies through:- creation of effective health education of materials to address misconceptions and the development of other means of publicity to reach the underprivileged population, such as ;role-playing for rural areas and hotlines for urban areas.