Awareness and Attitude of Primary School Teachers toward Absence Seizure in the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia.

OBJECTIVES

This research aimed to measure awareness of absence seizures and their effect on academic performance among elementary school teachers in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, in addition to measuring their desire to attend awareness-raising workshops that teach them about the disease.

METHODOLOGY

A cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2022 to March 2023. A total of 509 elementary school teachers in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia completed a self-administrated online questionnaire. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were established through face validity and a pilot study.

RESULTS

The teachers' ages ranged from 20 to more than 50 years (mean: 39.8 ± 11.4 years), and 360 (70.7%) teachers were females. Regarding experience, 139 (27.3%) had worked for <5 years, 111 (21.8%) for 5-10 years, and 259 (50.9%) for more than 10 years. Exact 102 (20%) teachers had overall good knowledge and awareness of absence epilepsy compared to 407 (80%) with an overall poor knowledge level. Four hundred and forty-seven (87.8%) of the teachers agreed that it is important to inform their schools about the child's disease. Exact 483 (94.9%) teachers were willing to learn more about absence epilepsy, and 475 (93.3%) supported the establishment of training courses for teachers to raise awareness of absence epilepsy.

CONCLUSION

Although the vast majority were willing to learn more about absence epilepsy and had a good level of awareness about its effect on academic performance, primary school teachers in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province demonstrated inadequate knowledge about the disease itself.