The Relationship between Mothers' Epilepsy-related Knowledge and their Healthcare Practices and Attitudes, Alexandria, Egypt

Document Type : Research articles

Authors

1 Public Health Nursing, Family Health Department, High Institute of Public Health (HIPH), Alexandria University

2 Mental Health, Family Health Department, High Institute of Public Health (HIPH), Alexandria University

Abstract

Maternal knowledge about childhood epilepsy is an important aspect affecting their
healthcare practices and attitudes towards their children. Objective: Assess level of mothers'
knowledge about childhood epilepsy, to investigate its relation to their healthcare practices
and attitudes, and to identify socio-demographic, educational and disease-related factors
associated with mothers’ knowledge level. Setting: The study was carried out in Smouha
Health Insurance Child Mental Health Clinic affiliated to the Health Insurance Organization,
Alexandria–Egypt. Subjects: The subjects of present study comprised of 308 mothers
attending the clinic for follow up of their epileptic children. Tool: A predesigned
questionnaire was used to assess mothers' epilepsy-related knowledge, practices and
attitudes. Results: The majority of mothers (80.5%) showed unsatisfactory knowledge. Most
of them (91.9%) agreed on observing the child all the time for safety; showed good
compliance with children's medications for dose (83.4%) and time (72.7%). More than half
(54.2%) did not treat their children as normal ones (overprotection/rejection). The higher
level of mother's knowledge was associated significantly with disagreement on observing the
child all the time (P= 0.000), and with medication compliance (P= 0.034). Only grand mal
seizures predicted higher level of mothers' knowledge (B= 0.961, P= 0.015). Conclusion:
Mothers' knowledge about epilepsy was considerably low. Higher knowledge level was
associated with positive attitudes and practices. Recommendations: Integrating an
educational component to healthcare plans of epileptic children is recommended.

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