Attitudes Toward Epilepsy Among Parents of Children With Epilepsy in Southern China

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the attitudes toward epilepsy among parents of children with epilepsy (CWE) in China and identify some related factors for future interventions for parents to offer more social support for CWE. Method: The Chinese Public Attitudes Toward Epilepsy (CPATE) scale was administered to 234 parents of CWE and 203 parents of normal children in Xiangya hospital during 2019-2020. Results: The cumulative score of the parents of CWE (26.427 ± 6.688) was significantly lower than that of the normal children group (32.330 ± 7.234, p < 0.001). Subanalysis showed more positive attitudes among parents of CWE than the control group (p < 0.001) toward education (4.765 ± 1.985 vs. 6.621 ± 2.419), social life (6.556 ± 2.456 vs. 8.010 ± 2.683), marriage (9.586 ± 2.675 vs. 11.025 ± 2.900), and employment (3.876 ± 1.364 vs. 4.5123 ± 1.283). The attitudes toward epilepsy among parents of CWE with seizures in public (27.16 ± 6.66) or during sleep (27.10 ± 6.38) were more negative than those without (25.35 ± 6.62 and 25.08 ± 7.10, respectively) (p < 0.05). In addition, female and low income were negatively related to parents' attitudes toward epilepsy. Conclusions: More active policy guidance and adequate social support should be given to parents of children with seizures in public or during sleep to instruct their children to form a positive perception about epilepsy, which is expected to have a positive impact on their social abilities in the future.

Keywords: attitudes; children with epilepsy; epilepsy; future life; parents.

Figure 1

Trend in attitude toward epilepsy presenting in cumulative score histograms of parents of children with epilepsy (CWE) (A, blue blocks) and normal children (B, yellow blocks). Cumulative score is shown in the x-axis, and the frequency of cumulative score is shown in the y-axis. The black smooth curves represent the normal distribution of the two groups. Three red vertical dotted lines represent the 5th, 50th, and 95th percentiles of distribution of parents of children with epilepsy and how they project on the distribution of parents of normal children.

Figure 2

Attitude toward the four social aspects of life in people with epilepsy among parents of children and adolescents with epilepsy and the control group. (A) Intragroup comparison: Mean scores per item of attitudes toward the four social aspects of life in people with epilepsy among parents of children and adolescents with epilepsy and the control group, respectively. (B) Comparison among groups: Attitudes toward four social aspects of life in people with epilepsy parents of children and adolescents with epilepsy and the control group. Statistical significance (p < 0.001) is marked with ***.