A survey of public knowledge, attitudes, and practices with respect to epilepsy in Badissa Village, Centre Region of Cameroon
Introduction
Epilepsy is the most frequent neurological brain disorder worldwide [1]. The perception of this condition in the world varies depending on the regions and the cultures of the people studied (2). Several studies have shown the influence of culture and the way of life of the people on their attitudes and practices with respect to epilepsy in developed countries [2], [3], [4], [5] and in Cameroon [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]. Cameroon is one of the countries most affected by epilepsy in Africa [11]. The recognition of epilepsy as a public health problem led to the creation of the National Epilepsy Control Programme in the Ministry of Public Health of Cameroon in 2006.
Badissa is located in a rural area in Cameroon where one of the highest prevalence rates of epilepsy (6%) has been reported [11]. An epilepsy education and treatment program was introduced in Badissa more than 10 years ago by our team of neurologists from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Yaounde I [12]. We hypothesized that attitudes and practices with respect to epilepsy in this area in which there is a pilot epilepsy education and treatment program would be much better than those in other regions of the country without such a program [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [13], [14]. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) with respect to epilepsy, as well as determinants of poor attitudes and practices with respect to epilepsy, in a sample of village inhabitants.
Section snippets
Place of study
Cameroon is a country in Central Africa with an estimated population of about 18 million inhabitants from more than 250 ethnic groups [15]. Badissa is a small village with 1054 inhabitants, mostly of the Sanaga ethnic group, living in 179 households or families. The village is located in the equatorial rain forest of Cameroon. The population depends economically mainly on agriculture and peasant fishing in the River Sanaga. Badissa Village is part of the Nyamanga II Health Area (with 11,592
Results
A total of 164 participants, 70 women and 94 men (F/M sex-ratio = 1/1.34), were interviewed. The sample was made up mainly of farmers (96.3%), and the mean age was 48.1 ± 15 years with an interquartile range of 24 years (Q1 = 36 years, Q3 = 60 years).
Discussion
The aim of this study was to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices with respect to epilepsy in Badissa Village. The data shows that familiarity with epilepsy is higher in Badissa than in other communities studied in Cameroon [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]. This high familiarity corresponds to the reported high prevalence rates of epilepsy in this area [11].
Our data further indicate that the inhabitants of Badissa have the best attitudes toward epilepsy among people from all the study areas:
Conclusion
Our study demonstrates a high level of awareness and a fairly good knowledge of epilepsy. These data further confirm our hypothesis of a regional variation in knowledge, attitudes, and practices with respect to epilepsy in Cameroon. The attitudes and practices observed are better than those reported elsewhere in Cameroon and this can be related to the existing epilepsy education and treatment program in Badissa. If this program is extended and scaled up to other areas of Cameroon with high
Author contributions
A.K.N. conceived the study; A.K.N., P.J., and W.F.M. designed the study; D.F. collected the data; E.N.T., D.F., and AK.N. analyzed the data and drafted the article. All authors contributed significantly to improve the scientific content of the article and approved the final version.
Acknowledgments
The authors express their thanks to all the study participants for their collaboration and to Reverend Sister Franca de Simone of the Nyamanga II Catholic Health Centre and her entire team for assistance during the study.
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