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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · International Journal of Epilepsy 2022; 08(01): 028-034
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1771205
Original Article

Awareness and Attitude among Nonmedical University Students on Epilepsy in Lebanon: A Cross-Sectional Study

Christin Berjaoui 
1   Faculty of Medicine, Beirut Arab University, Beirut, Lebanon
,
Salim Atrouni 
2   Saint Jean Hospital, Brussels, Belgium
,
Hassan Doumiati 
3   Department of Neurology, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon
,
Hayat Mezher 
4   Department of Infectious Diseases, Saint George Hospital University Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon
,
Loubna Sinno 
5   Department of Research, Makassed General Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon
,
Hania ElJarkass 
1   Faculty of Medicine, Beirut Arab University, Beirut, Lebanon
6   Department of Neurology, Makassed General Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon
› Author Affiliations Funding None.
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Abstract

Background Several studies addressed the awareness and knowledge of epilepsy among students and teachers that indicated unfavorable levels of awareness, but none in Lebanon.

Aim The aim of this study is to determine the level of awareness and attitude toward epilepsy among nonmedical university students.

Methods A survey-based questionnaire was conducted among 1,000 nonmedical students. SPSS was used for data analysis.

Results Participants claimed 78.5% having some knowledge about epilepsy (78.5%), with only 20.1% of the participants attaining their knowledge through university courses. Alarmingly, negative beliefs were noticed in our study such as considering person with epilepsy (PWE) as disabled (34.9%), epilepsy is a genetic disorder (40.9%), and it would lead to insanity (43.1%). Moreover, participants think that a PWE is unable to get married (29.5%), nor have children (25.2%), and they would even refuse to marry someone with epilepsy (35.7%). On the other hand, participants showed some positive behaviors such as the fact that epilepsy is not contagious (81%), would accept to accompany a colleague with epilepsy (72.1%), and believing that PWE can succeed at jobs (82.2%). When it comes to providing first aid, wrong practices were reported such as believing that something should be placed in the mouth during a seizure to avoid biting their tongue (58.1%).

Conclusion Lack of knowledge, acceptance, and first aid practices have been observed in our study. Thus, efforts in including epilepsy within university curriculums, as well as raising awareness different platforms and campaigns should be done, as the social burden is even higher on PWE.

Keywords

epilepsy - awareness - behavior - belief

Data Availability Statement

Data available upon request.


Ethical Approval

We confirm that we have read the journal's position on issues involved in ethical publication and affirm that this report is consistent with those guidelines. The Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was obtained on February 28, 2019 with the IRB code: 28022019.




Publication History

Article published online:
26 July 2023

© 2023. Indian Epilepsy Society. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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