Common-sense knowledge of epilepsy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find an answer to the question what is the knowledge on epilepsy in the population and what is the attitude towards epileptics. The study was carried out in a randomly selected sample of 150 people living in a province capital and it was a continuation of similar studies conducted abroad and in Poland (Bagley, 1972; Zieliński, 1974). The analysis of the knowledge level on various aspects of epilepsy showed that 41.3% of the responders had a quite good information on this disease. Sex-related differences were observed in favour of women. The knowledge possessed by subjects with high and medium education was better than that of subjects with elementary education. A decidedly non-accepting attitude towards epileptics was manifested by 36.6% of the studied subjects, and decidedly accepting attitude by 19.3%. The accepting attitude was more frequent among women with elementary education. The non-accepting attitude was expressed most frequently by responders with elementary vocational education and those with incomplete high education. The comparison of certain results of these investigations with those carried out in Warsaw (1974) demonstrated an essential difference in the level of acceptance of epileptics. Generally speaking, the Warsaw responders had an accepting attitude, and the presently studied ones has a non-accepting attitude. The Warsaw study demonstrated a rising social acceptance level with higher educational levels, this relationship was not observed in the present study.