2023, Vol. 5, Issue 1, Part B

Background of the study: Epilepsy is a chronic condition characterized by uncertainty. It affects more than 50 million people worldwide and is an important public health problem (WHO, 2004). Some studies in developing countries suggest the prevalence of epilepsy to be more than 10 per 100 (WHO 2003) [2]. In India, there are 30 million people affected by epilepsy in 2004. According to Meadow and Smithells (2005) about 1 in 200 school children are affected with epilepsy about 1 person in 20 has a seizure of some type during life, and in the population at large about 1 in 200 has epilepsy. There are approximately 5 million people with epilepsy in India, and economic burden due to epilepsy to the nation is Rs. 13.500 million. According to this report there are only 400 Neurologists in India i.e., 1 Neurologist for 13.500 persons with epilepsy [8].

Approach: The research approach adopted for this study was non-experimental descriptive survey approach.

Design: The research design selected for this present study was descriptive research.

Setting: The study was conducted at teacher training institutes at Bangalore, Karnataka.

Participants: 60 teacher’s trainees were selected by purposive sampling technique, as non-probability sampling method.

Methods: The data was generated by using the structured questionnaire. Purposive non-probability sampling techniques were adopted to select 60 subjects. The data was obtained from the study subjects were analyzed and interpreted in terms of the objectives and hypothesis of the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the data analysis and the level set at 0.05.

Results: Data collected were analysed by using descriptive statistics. Results of the study revealed that, majority of the teacher trainees i.e. 76.67% had inadequate knowledge and 23.33% of teacher trainees had moderate knowledge. None of them had adequate knowledge. The Range knowledge of teacher trainees was 4-21. The Mean and Mean percentage of knowledge of teacher trainees was 14.44 and 48.13% respectively, with standard deviation 3.16. In the same way, majority of the teacher trainees i.e. 80% had unfavorable attitude. And 20% of teacher trainees had moderate attitude. None of them had Favorable attitude. The Range Attitude of teacher trainee’s was 40-92. The Mean and Mean percentage of attitude of teacher trainees was 77.5 and 51.67% respectively, with standard deviation 4.5. The correlation co-efficient value of knowledge and attitude of teacher trainees was + 0.19 that shows that there was positive correlation exists between knowledge and attitude of teacher trainees about epilepsy in school children. It indicates that this means more the knowledge better the attitude.

Interpretation & Conclusion: On the basis of the study we can draw the following conclusions. The majority of the teacher trainees had inadequate knowledge and unfavorable attitude. The correlation co-efficient value of knowledge and attitude of teacher trainees was + 0.19 that shows that there was positive correlation exists between knowledge and attitude of teacher trainees about epilepsy in school children. It indicates that this means more the knowledge better the attitude.