Knowledge, Attitude and Safe Practice towards Epilepsy among Preparatory School Students in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Epilepsy is a chronic non-communicable neurological brain disorder which affects people of all age groups. In Ethiopia, 5.2/1000 residents are living with epilepsy; among these, 31.2% of people living with epilepsy had perceived stigma. Negative attitude, stigma and discrimination towards people living with epilepsy are high among high school students. Objective: To assess the level of knowledge, attitude, and safe practice and associated factors towards epilepsy among preparatory school students in Gondar town, Northwest Ethiopia, 2016. Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 1 to March 15, 2016 among preparatory school students. 395 students were selected by using stratified sampling technique. Closed ended structured questionnaires were used for data collection.  The collected data were checked, coded and entered to EPI-INFO version 7 and exported to SPSS version 20 for further analysis. Descriptive statistics was applied, and also bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used. Results: A total of 379 students participated with a response rate of 95.95%. In general, 47.5% of students had good knowledge, 64.1% of students had favorable attitude and 31.4% of students had safe practice. Having information from books was associated with good knowledge. Good knowledge and having information from books were associated with favorable attitude and also living in rural residence was associated with unfavorable attitude. Moreover, private schools allow employment to PLWE and wish friendship with people living with epilepsy were associated with safe practice. However, reading about epilepsy was associated with unsafe practice. Conclusion and Recommendations: Overall, the current study showed that students’ knowledge and practice were found to be poor but relatively they had favorable attitude.

Keywords: Attitude, epilepsy, Ethiopia, Gondar, knowledge, practice

Cite this Article

Yohannes Mulu Ferede, Fisseha Zewdu Amdie, Muluken Fekadie Zerihun. Knowledge, Attitude and Safe Practice towards Epilepsy among Preparatory School Students in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study. Research and Reviews: Journal of Neuroscience. 2019; 9(2): 16–26p.