Knowledge, Perceptions And Attitudes Towards Schoolchildren With Epilepsy Among School Teachers In Two Cities In South Western Nigeria

Objective: To assess school teachers knowledge, perception and attitude towards school children with epilepsy in south western Nigeria Background: Epilepsy is the commonest neurological disorder affecting children in developing countries such as Nigeria. The aim of this survey was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and perceptions of school teachers towards the school children with epilepsy in two cities in southwestern Nigeria. Design/Methods: Self administered questionnaire was used to obtaininformation from 153 school teacher in two cities in southwestern Nigeria. The responserate was 83%. The questionnaire consisted of 18 times (4 socio-demographic, 3 perception and 1 Treatment). The data was analyzed by SPSS version 17.0 software and level of significance was set at p Results: The mean age of the respondents was 44.6± 21.9 years. There were 75 males and 74 females in the study and all the teachers have tertiary level of education. About 92% of the teachers have heard about epilepsy while 23% knew someone with epilepsy. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents thought that epilepsy is a brain disease while 37% thought epilepsy is a spiritual attack. About 9% thought epilepsy is contagious while 12% believed epilepsy is a form of mental retardation. About 7% of the respondents were of the opinion that children with epilepsy should never attend school. The teachers: level of education had a direct relationship with their perception about the causes and contagiousness of epilepsy (P 0.05). Conclusions: In this study, a significant proportion of school teachers had poor knowledge, attitudes and perception about epilepsy and considerable health education on epilepsy is advocated for this population. Study Supported by: Not applicable Disclosure: Dr. Komolafe has nothing to disclose. Dr. Sunmonu has nothing to disclose. Dr. Afolabi has nothing to disclose. Dr. Adebiyi has nothing to disclose.