. Meena Kolar Sridara Murthy; . Lakshmana Govindappa; . P. Marimuthu; . Madhuporna Dasgupta
Volume 9, Issue 6 , June 2019, , Pages 1-6
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The condition of epilepsy has a considerable effect on a person’s social andpersonal life. Currently, a knowledge gap exists regarding the knowledge, attitude, and ...
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BACKGROUND: The condition of epilepsy has a considerable effect on a person’s social andpersonal life. Currently, a knowledge gap exists regarding the knowledge, attitude, and perceptiontowards epilepsy among graduate students. The objectives of the study were to initially explore theknowledge, attitude, practices and to examine their inter‑relationship among graduate students.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 300 3rd year Bachelor of Science graduate students fromcolleges near Hombegowda nagar, Bangalore, Karnataka were included from three colleges. Toachieve the objective mentioned, an instrument was framed and approved by specialists in the field.RESULTS: About 26% believed that epilepsy is a mental illness, 64% reported that it is not a disease ofthe brain, 96% believed it to be a hereditary disease. Attitude shows that 29%, 33%, and 49% believedthat Epilepsy can disturb anybody’s normal life, education, and occupation, respectively. About31% reported that if they see a person with epileptic attack they ran away. Knowledge score havesignificantly (P < 0.001) positive correlation of r = 0.810 and r = 0.794 with both attitude and practice,respectively. Attitude and practice also have significantly (P < 0.001) positive correlation (0.856) withpractice. This clearly shows that if knowledge increases, persons will have positive attitude and goodpractices whereas less knowledge leads to faulty attitude and practices.CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to include health education programs for school children andcollege students irrespective of streams, as it is crucial to bring an alteration in the presently observedperspective, behavior, and practice.
