Awareness and attitudes toward epilepsy among medical students and interns in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background:Epilepsy is a common neurological condition. It affects around 1% of the global population. This study aims to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes toward epilepsy.Methods:This is a cross-sectional observational study. An online questionnaire was distributed to medical students in their c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Primary health care research & development 2022-01, Vol.23, p.e70-e70, Article e70
Main Authors: Bin Abdulrahman, Khalid A., Alharbi, Majed Ghanem, Alzeer, Abdulmajeed Mansour
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Blood diseases
Brain diseases
Colleges & universities
Convulsions & seizures
Epilepsy
Health sciences
Knowledge
Medical students
Questionnaires
Statistical significance
Stress
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Summary:Background:Epilepsy is a common neurological condition. It affects around 1% of the global population. This study aims to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes toward epilepsy.Methods:This is a cross-sectional observational study. An online questionnaire was distributed to medical students in their clinical and preclinical years and interns at Riyadh’s four public universities. Then a comparison was made to see whether attending more courses in medical school would influence the students’ knowledge and attitudes.Results:In the present study, 95% of medical students had heard about epilepsy or convulsive seizures (a significantly larger proportion of clinical students had heard about epilepsy than preclinical students (99.0% versus 92%, P-value = 0.000)). Furthermore, 34.0% believed that epilepsy could be treated. Moreover, 79.1% of those polled claimed that brain disease originated from epilepsy, followed by genetic factors (64.1%) and convulsions (92.3%) as the most common symptoms.Conclusion:Regarding medical students’ awareness of epilepsy, it turns out that it is good and better than reported in other research, especially among clinical students rather than preclinical students, who have a negative attitude toward epileptic patients. Consequently, there is a need to further development of their knowledge throughout future campaigns and conferences, and curricula that should be tailored to help improve awareness and attitudes toward epilepsy.
ISSN:1463-4236
1477-1128
DOI:10.1017/S1463423622000597