Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Toward Epilepsy Among Rural Tanzanian Residents
| dc.contributor.author | Kilonzo, Gad P. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-07-14T10:36:46Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-07-14T10:36:46Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1993 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Before a health education program can be established, one must first know what the target population believes and does with respect to the disease in question. Therefore, we performed a study among Tanzanian rural inhabitants to identify their knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) toward epilepsy: 3,256 heads of households (mean age 40.2 years, range 15–90 years; M/F ratio 1:1) were interviewed. Of the respondents, 32.9% said they had never seen a seizure; 67.7% said they did not know the cause of epilepsy; 33.3% mentioned various causes including heredity, witchcraft, infection of the spinal cord, hernia; 40.6% believed epilepsy was infectious through physical contact, flatus, breath, excretions, sharing food; 36.8% believed epilepsy could not be cured and 17.1% believed it could not even be controlled; 45.3% believed epilepsy could be treated by traditional healers, and only 50.8% believed hospital drugs were of any use; and 62.7% of the respondents would not allow an epileptic child to go to school for various reasons, including mental sub normality (54.0%), fear of the child falling while alone (65.9%), and fear that the epileptic child would infect other children (11.2%). Concerning what is to be done when a seizure occurs, 33.5% of the respondents would keep away and not touch the person; 16.5% would take some potentially harmful measure such as forcing a mouth gag or forcing a drink such as water (1 even mentioned urine); 5.2% would take unnecessary measures such as rushing the patient to a hospital. Only 35.7% of respondents would perform at least some of the currently recommended first‐aid measures. Therefore, there is a need for health education on epilepsy in Tanzania, and these results are forming the base for design and execution of a health education and a primary health care program in epilepsy control. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | Rwiza, H.T., Matuja, W.B.P., Kilonzo, G.P., Haule, J., Mbena, P., Mwang'Ombola, R. and Jilek‐Aall, L., 1993. Knowledge, attitude, and practice toward epilepsy among rural Tanzanian residents. Epilepsia, 34(6), pp.1017-1023. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.other | :https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1528-1157.1993.tb02127.x | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/507 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Epilepsia | en_US |
| dc.subject | Knowledge and Attitude | en_US |
| dc.subject | Epilepsy | en_US |
| dc.subject | Tanzanian Residents | en_US |
| dc.title | Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Toward Epilepsy Among Rural Tanzanian Residents | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |