• Christian N Eze, Olufunke M Ebuehi, Francesco Brigo, Willem M Otte, and Stanley C Igwe.
• Department of Neuro-Psychiatry, Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Nigeria.
• Seizure. 2015 Dec 1; 33: 46-53.

PurposeHigh rates of poor knowledge of, and negative attitudes towards people with epilepsy (PWE) are generally found among school teachers. Their first aid epilepsy management skills are poor. It remains unknown if this is different among trainee teachers and whether educational intervention might reduce these rates. We examined the effect of health education on the knowledge, attitudes, and first aid management of epilepsy on trainee teachers in Nigeria.MethodsBaseline data and socio-demographic determinants were collected from 226 randomly selected trainee teachers, at the Federal College of Education, Lagos, Nigeria, with self-administered questionnaires. They received a health intervention comprising an hour and half epilepsy lecture followed by a discussion. Baseline knowledge of, and attitudes towards PWE and their first aid epilepsy management skills were compared to post-interventional follow-up data collected twelve weeks later with similar questionnaires.ResultsAt baseline the majority (61.9%) and largest proportion (44.2%) of respondents had negative attitudes and poor knowledge of epilepsy, respectively. The knowledge of, and attitudes towards epilepsy, and the first aid management skill increased in most respondents, post-intervention. The proportion of respondents with poor knowledge and negative attitudes dropped by 15.5% (p<0.0001) and 16.4% (p<0.0001) respectively. Correct knowledge concomitantly increased by 29.6% (p<0.0001) and good first aid management skills increased by 25.0% (p<0.0001) from baseline.ConclusionEpilepsy health education could increase trainee teachers' knowledge of, and attitudes towards epilepsy and facilitate correct first aid management. This emphasizes the potential benefit of incorporating an epilepsy tailored intervention programme into teachers' training curricula.Copyright © 2015 British Epilepsy Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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