Knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of epilepsy among secondary school teachers in Osogbo South-West Nigeria: a community based study.

BACKGROUND: The attitudes toward people with epilepsy are influenced by the degree of knowledge of the condition. The social problems encountered by school children with epilepsy as a result of negative attitude and beliefs are quite enormous.
OBJECTIVES: The study therefore looked at the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of teachers, who see a lot of epileptics, relate to them on a daily basis and have influence on them.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey, using a self-administered questionnaire obtained from the author of a similar study in the United States, was carried out among 269 school teachers randomly selected from various secondary schools in Osogbo, the Osun State capital in South-West Nigeria. The questionnaire included the scale of attitudes toward persons with epilepsy and knowledge about epilepsy as well as demographic and teaching experience survey among others.
RESULTS: Despite the high level of education of the teachers ranging from Masters Degree to National Certificate in Education, there were significant deficits in terms of general knowledge about epilepsy (70% of the respondents reported their general knowledge about epilepsy in the lower half of the scale). There was also poor knowledge of the first aids measures in the classrooms. Below one-third (29.2%) felt it was contagious and 40% of respondents reported that sufferers should not be kept in regular classes. However, their attitudes toward epilepsy were generally positive. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: We concluded that teachers need to have health education courses on common disease conditions such as epilepsy that are prevalent in school age; this might help to reduce the prejudice and increase the acceptance of epileptic individuals in the classrooms. Also, generally public health campaigns should be encouraged in this field.