Okunola Peter Olusola, Nwaneri Damian Uchechukwu
Department of Child Health and Institute of Child Health, College of Medical Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
Niger Med J. 2019 Jul-Aug;60(4):175-180. doi: 10.4103/nmj.NMJ_73_19. Epub 2019 Nov 25.
Epilepsy is a serious childhood disease associated with stigmatization in the community. Despite the deleterious effect of the disease on childhood brain growth and development, the disease is treatable.
The aim of this study is to document the knowledge of childhood epilepsy by community members using traders (market women and men in a popular market in Benin City, Nigeria) as a case study.
This was a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out in April 2018. Data collection was by researcher-administered questionnaire. The respondents were traders (women and men) in Edaiken market Benin City Nigeria who were recruited consecutively during the period of the study. The analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 21, and the level of statistical significance of variables was set at 95% confidence level and < 0.05.
Of the 500 respondents, 47 (9.4%) males and 453 (90.6%) females; mean age (standard deviation) was 35.3 ± 9.4 years. Total knowledge score of childhood epilepsy in this study was 27.6%. Only 116 (23.2%) study participants gave correctly a description of epileptic fits in a child. Although majority 71.0% said that epilepsy has the medical cure, none was able to mention any known drugs for the treatment of epilepsy and 72.6% said that they would use traditional remedies.
The overall observed knowledge score of childhood epilepsy was low. Although most respondents stated that epilepsy has medical cure, majority preferred the traditional options for treatment. These findings, therefore, highlighted the need to enlighten the public about childhood epilepsy and its medical treatment options.
癫痫是一种严重的儿童疾病，在社区中常伴有污名化现象。尽管该疾病对儿童大脑生长发育有有害影响，但它是可治疗的。
本研究旨在以商贩（尼日利亚贝宁城一个热门市场的男女摊主）为案例研究，记录社区成员对儿童癫痫的了解情况。
这是一项于2018年4月开展的描述性横断面研究。数据通过研究者发放的问卷收集。受访者是尼日利亚贝宁城埃代肯市场的商贩（男女皆有），在研究期间连续招募。分析使用社会科学统计软件包第21版进行，变量的统计学显著性水平设定为95%置信水平且P<0.05。
在500名受访者中，男性47名（9.4%），女性453名（90.6%）；平均年龄（标准差）为35.3±9.4岁。本研究中儿童癫痫的总体知识得分率为27.6%。只有116名（23.2%）研究参与者正确描述了儿童癫痫发作的情况。尽管大多数（71.0%）表示癫痫有医学治疗方法，但没有人能说出任何已知的治疗癫痫的药物，72.6%的人表示他们会使用传统疗法。
观察到的关于儿童癫痫的总体知识得分较低。尽管大多数受访者表示癫痫有医学治疗方法，但大多数人更喜欢传统治疗选择。因此，这些发现凸显了向公众宣传儿童癫痫及其医学治疗选择的必要性。
