Patients’ Attitude and Knowledge About Epilepsy in the North of Iran in 2016 - 2018

Epilepsy is a severe problem incorporating a high degree of the misconception that influences the quality of life of individuals suffering from the disease.

The purpose of the present study was to assess the knowledge and attitudes of patients with epilepsy toward the disease.

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 155 individuals with epilepsy aged ≥ 18 years from August 2016 to Jun 2018 in an outpatient clinic of a medical university in Sari City, North of Iran. Thirty-four closed-ended questions were developed, including 14 items about knowledge, 11 items about attitudes, and nine questions about knowledge profile-personal toward epilepsy. Answers to the questions were either “yes,” “no,” or “I do not know.” The chi-square (χ2) test was used to explain the association between variables and demographic information.

The mean age of the participants was 31.73 ± 11.06 years. Regarding the cause of epilepsy, 85.8% of the participants reported that epilepsy is a brain disorder. Moreover, in terms of the knowledge score, 54.8% of the participants had a fair knowledge of epilepsy. Accordingly, patients with university education had good knowledge about the disease (P = 0.007). In terms of attitudes toward epilepsy, 82.6% of the patients had a positive attitude toward the disease but had no good awareness of it. These positive attitudes were associated with a high education level (P = 0.001).

This study showed that despite the positive attitude toward epilepsy, good knowledge about the disease was still below 50%.