Assessment of epilepsy awareness, knowledge, and attitudes among preclinical and clinical medical students in the West Bank of Palestine

•All healthcare systems have medical students as their future employees.•Awareness, knowledge, and attitude of medical students were examined.•Medical students knew little about epilepsy types, causes, triggers, and first aid.•Despite some students learning about epilepsy, more education is needed o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Epilepsy & behavior 2023-08, Vol.145, p.109317-109317, Article 109317
Main Authors: Abuawad, Mohammad, Rjoub, Ahmad, Abu Zahra, Wafaa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Awareness
Epilepsy
Knowledge
Palestine
Students
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Summary:•All healthcare systems have medical students as their future employees.•Awareness, knowledge, and attitude of medical students were examined.•Medical students knew little about epilepsy types, causes, triggers, and first aid.•Despite some students learning about epilepsy, more education is needed on the topic.•Proper inclusion of epilepsy in the regular curriculum of medical degree program is recommended. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the level of epilepsy-related awareness, knowledge, and attitude exhibited by medical students at a specific medical school in Palestine, as well as the students' reactions to the treatment and social activities provided to patients with epilepsy. A cross-sectional, observational research of 306 medical students at An-Najah National University in the West Bank, Palestine, was conducted. We used a validated survey taken from previous publications. We split the medical students into preclinical (2nd and 3rd year) and clinical (4th, 5th, and 6th year) groups to see if there were significant differences in their awareness, knowledge, attitude, and their practices toward patients with epilepsy. Several elements, such as sociodemographics, awareness, knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding epilepsy, were included in the survey. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 29.0. Quantitative data were expressed as mean and standard deviation, whereas qualitative data as frequencies and percentages. The chi-square test was used to compare groups.Any P-value below 0.05 was considered statistically significant. In general, clinical medical students exhibited better epilepsy awareness, knowledge, and attitude than preclinical students. Of note, 73.6% of clinical students believe epilepsy is a treatable disorder, compared to 44.6% of preclinical students (P-value 
ISSN:1525-5050
1525-5069
DOI:10.1016/j.yebeh.2023.109317