Knowledge, Attitude and Self-efficacy of School Teachers towards Students with Epilepsy in Haryana, India: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Epilepsy is the commonest childhood neurological disorder mostly affecting children in the first decade of life. Globally, school teachers have many false beliefs and misinformation about epilepsy. The knowledge and attitude of teachers towards students with epilepsy have a huge impact on their future life. Aim: To evaluate the knowledge, attitude and self-efficacy of school teachers towards students with epilepsy. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from 20 August 2022 to 31 October 2022 at BPS GMC for women, Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat, Haryana, India, using self-administered questionnaire including randomly selected 427 school teachers from 15 schools of Haryana (India). The questionnaire included the scale of Attitude Towards Persons with Epilepsy (ATPE), a summated rating scale for measuring knowledge and attitude. Several additional knowledge and attitude items were also evaluated. Effect of socio-demographic characteristics of participants were also evaluated as a predictor of knowledge and attitude. Data was collected and statistics were applied using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software and p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The mean age of teachers in the present study was 37.7±8.8 years (range=23-58 years). Among the total participants, 79.4% were female teachers. They had approximately two times higher probability of getting a good knowledge and attitude score. Age group 30 to 50 years had higher chances of getting a good knowledge score. Teaching experience has a positive effect on the knowledge score. Awareness about epilepsy was quite high (85%). Only 14% teachers had previous or current contact with persons with epilepsy. A total of 10.7% teachers had performed first aid management of seizures and 9% of teachers thought that epilepsy is contiguous. The median score for knowledge and attitude were 6 (range= -21 to +26) and 25 (range=-19 to +62), respectively showing overall good knowledge and attitude score. But there were deficits in individual items score and first aid management of seizures. Conclusion: The overall result of study indicated a good knowledge and attitude towards students with epilepsy, among the participant teachers. Although there were some deficient areas which need to be improved regarding knowledge and attitude and first aid management of seizure episodes. There is a pressing need for integration of educational training courses about epilepsy in the teachers training curriculum.