Background: Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder with a high prevalence. Epilepsy is a brain disorder which is characterized by recurrent seizures. This study was done to assess the knowledge, awareness and attitude on epilepsy among undergraduate health care students in Jouf University.
Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted through questionnaire among 523 participants of health care students in Jouf university and studied in five different specialties: Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Physiotherapy and Laboratory Assistants.
Results: The knowledge about epilepsy was high among participants. Around 82.6% had heard or read about epilepsy. Majority of participants of all specialties (39.4%) reported that epilepsy is a brain disease and only 3.4% thought it was acquired through accident. Regarding treatment of epilepsy, majority reported treatment by medication (59.7%) in all specialties. 69.4% of all participants believed that epilepsy is not a contagious disease, the proportion was observed highest in medicine students (16.6%), as compared to nursing (15.7%), physiotherapy (14%), pharmacy (14%), and laboratory assistants (9.2%) (p=0.042). In attitude towards epilepsy, 60.4% said that there was no need of special classes for epileptic children. Where 56.4% would employ someone with epilepsy. However, 58.5% of them would not marry someone with epilepsy.
Conclusion: The knowledge and awareness of participants of the study was of favorable level and the attitude was good. However, there is still a need to improve certain aspects of attitude and understanding of epilepsy among university students.
Key words: knowledge, Awareness, Attitudes ,Students , Epilepsy
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