Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health sciences students regarding epilepsy at the end of their curriculum in Benin

Charlemagne Vodougnon (1, 2) , Daniel Gérard (3) , Pierre-Emile Bruand (3) , Emilie Auditeau (1) , Farid Boumédiène (1) , Inès Yoro Zohoun (1) , Dieudonné Gnonlonfoun (1, 2) , Dismand Houinato (1, 2) , Pierre-Marie Preux (1, 4, 5)

1 NET - Neuroépidémiologie Tropicale
2 LEMACEN - Laboratory of Chronic and Neurological Diseases Epidemiology
3 Sanofi-Aventis R&D
4 SIME - Service de l'Information Médicale et de l'Évaluation [CHU Limoges]
5 Laboratoire de Biostatistique et d'Informatique Médicale

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of health sciences students regarding epilepsy at the end of their curriculum in Benin.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey among medical, pharmacy, nursing, and midwife students in their last year of health sciences training in the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin. Students completed a self-administered questionnaire, containing items addressing demographics, epilepsy treatment, diagnosis, clinical practice, and social tolerance regarding a person with epilepsy (PWE).ResultsThe response rate to our survey was 87.7% (n = 164). The sample consisted of 64 medical students, 22 pharmacy students, 43 nursing students, and 35 midwife students. They were divided into 95 female subjects and 69 males; sex ratio was 0.7. The mean age of participants was 23.6 ± 1.8 years. The mean scores for epilepsy knowledge, practices, and attitudes were respectively 7.6 ± 1.7 out of a maximum score of 11, 3.9 ± 1.8 out of 8, and 9.6 ± 0.8 out of 10. The KAP overall score was 21.1 ± 3.4 out of a maximum score of 29.0. The variables associated with the overall KAP score were training school, gender, having heard about epilepsy before health sciences studies (p = 0.017), and having a relative with epilepsy (p = 0.001). Male students and medical school students had significantly better overall KAP score than female students or the other training schools respectively (p < 0.001).SignificanceThese findings support the need to improve the health sciences students' knowledge of epilepsy, in particular, during their training.

Mots clés: Benin; KAP; Epilepsy; Health sciences students; Last year of training

Domaines: Santé publique et épidémiologie

Charlemagne Vodougnon, Daniel Gérard, Pierre-Emile Bruand, Emilie Auditeau, Farid Boumédiène, et al.. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of health sciences students regarding epilepsy at the end of their curriculum in Benin. Epilepsy & Behavior Case Reports, 2019, 92, pp.165-170. ⟨hal-01984607⟩