Knowledge, attitude and practice among adult Lebanese patients with epilepsy and impact on seizure control: a cross sectional descriptive study

Purpose: Epilepsy is the fourth most prevalent neurological disorder accounting for more than 50 million cases worldwide. Religious and sociocultural beliefs influence the nature of treatment and care received by epileptic patients. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), almost 94% of epileptic patients in developing nations are not taking the appropriate therapy to control their seizure leading to a higher incidence of lifelong active epilepsies in these regions. With no related data in Lebanon, this study sought to assess the knowledge, the attitude, and the practice towards epilepsy among adult Lebanese epileptic patients and the associated factors Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study approved by the ethical committee at the Lebanese international university. The sample was drawn randomly from community pharmacies based on stratified cluster sampling and the strata were the six districts of Lebanon. Sixty community pharmacies constituted the primary sampling units, and ten pharmacies were randomly selected from the districts using the Research Randomizer computer program. Patients aged eighteen years and above with at least two years of diagnosis with epilepsy, who came for normal medications or para-pharmaceuticals were enrolled in the study. The enrolled participants were directly interviewed by the clinical pharmacists after providing their oral informed consent. The data collection sheet was established based on validated and standardized questionnaires including The Epilepsy Patient Knowledge Profile (EPQK) and The Kilifi Epilepsy Beliefs and Attitudes tool (KEBAS). Data were analysed using the Statistical Package of the Social Sciences software (SPSS, version 21). Results: A Total of 134 epileptic patients (53% females, 47% males) with a mean age of 36.53 ± 13.15 years were included in this study. Most respondents had attained a minimum of secondary school education (91.3%). The most-reported seizure type was generalized seizure (26%). Approximately 64% of the studied patients had good seizure control. Most of the patients had good knowledge (82%) and a positive attitude (98%) toward their disease with almost two-thirds having a good practice (63%) as well. There were no statistically significant associations between the level of knowledge, attitude, or practice with seizure control (p= 0.14, p=1 and p=0.25, respectively). However, a statistically significant association was identified between the knowledge and educational level (p<0.001), Knowledge and Occupation, and between Practice and the educational levels of patients (P=0.015).