Knowledge about and Attitude towards Epilepsy among Menit Community, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Nearly 80% of the people with epilepsy are foundin developing countries, where epilepsy remains a major publichealth problem, not only because of its health implications but alsofor its social, cultural, psychological and economic effects. Theobjective of this study was to assess knowledge and attitude ofMenit community in Benchi-Maji Zone as regards epilepsy.METHODS: The study was conducted in Menit Goldia Province,one of the provinces of Bench-Maji Zone. Community baseddescriptive cross-sectional study was employed. Households wereselected by using systematic sampling technique. Data wascollected through pretested interviewer administered questionnaire.Data was cleaned, coded and entered in to EPI data version 3.1.The data was cleaned and transported into SPSS for analysis.RESULTS: Among the study participants, 808(97.1%) ever heardabout epilepsy, 85.3% reported that epilepsy is a mental diseasewhere as 40.6%, 49% and 49.4% respectively believed that it ishereditary, contagious, and God’s curse. Among the respondents,252(30%) think that epileptics should be isolated from thecommunity, 387(46.1%) and 336(40%) do not want to shake handswith epileptics and keep their children away from epileptic patientsrespectively. In this study, 85.6% and86.8% of the respondentswere not knowledgeable about and had negative attitude towardsepilepsy respectively. Ethnicity and educational status weresignificantly associated with knowledge and attitude. The FGDparticipants noted that the disease is God’s curse, and they lackedknowledge about the cause of epilepsy.CONCLUSION: The study participants’ level of knowledge aboutand attitude towards epilepsy was not satisfactory. Thus, it needsattention from concerned bodies.KEYWORDS: Epilepsy, Knowledge, Attitude, Ethiopia