Improving First Aid Management of Epilepsy by Trainee Teachers of the Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka - Lagos, South West Nigeria--Can Health Education have an Effect?

Background: lt is estimated that epilepsy affects approximately 50 million people worldwide and about 40 million of them live in developing countries. Studies have indicated high rates of poor knowledge, negative attitude and poor first aid management skills of students with epilepsy among practicing teachers. However, there is paucity of such studies on trainee teachers to ascertain any similarities or differences (if any) and the effect of educational interventions.

Objective: To determine the effect of a health education intervention on trainee teachers' knowledge, attitude and first aid management of epilepsy.

Methods: The effect of a health education intervention in first aid management of epilepsy was assessed among 226 trainee teachers, attending the Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka. This was done using a quasi-experimental study design. Data were analyzed using the SPSS version 15.

Results: The respondents had a median age of 22 years with a range of 18 to 56 years. The majority of them were females (68.6%), single (79.2%), Christians (81.9%), Yoruba (70.4%) and in first year (100 level) of their study (69.9%). The highest proportion was from the Accounting department (46.0%). A consistent increase in responses to items on knowledge, attitude and first aid management of epileptic seizure items from baseline to post-intervention was observed. For instance, the proportion of responses that epileptic seizures originate from the brain significantly (p = 0.025) increased from 62.5% at baseline to 74.1% after intervention. Generally, slightly more than two-fifths (44.2%) and about two thirds (61.9%) of the respondents were observed to have poor knowledge and negative attitude to epilepsy respectively at baseline. Overall, giving health education on epilepsy led to a reduction in the proportion of respondents with poor knowledge by 15.5% (increase of good knowledge by 29.6%), decrease of negative attitude by 16.4% and increase of good first aid management skill by 25.0%. The knowledge scores were significantly associated with age (p = 0.001), marital status (p = 0.003) and department (p = 0.004) while the attitude scores were significantly associated with teaching duration (p = 0.020). The knowledge was predicted by department (p = 0.001) while the attitude was predicted by teaching duration (p = 0.036).

Conclusion: This study reveals that health education could improve the knowledge, attitude. and first aid management of students with epilepsy among trainee teachers. It is therefore proposed that an intervention programme on baseline knowledge of epilepsy and its first aid management be incorporated into the teacher-training curriculum, particularly those in health-related programmes, to address their deficiencies in knowledge, attitude and first aid management of students with epilepsy.