Group Sessions : An Effective Method To Promote Awareness And Positive Approach Towards Epilepsy In Developing Countries

Abstract

Knowledge and attitude regarding epilepsy are major factors influencing outcome of treatment and quality of life in the management of epilepsy. Group session is one of the methods available to achieve these goals. It has the advantage of communication to a large number of patients within a short time. We undertook this study to ascertain the efficacy of this technique to impart knowledge and positive attitude towards epilepsy. A structured questionnaire was self administered to 60 patients before and after the meeting and the responses were scored on a scale of 0 to 100. The mean score improved from the baseline value of 73 + 17 to 83 + 13 after the group sessions, which was statistically significant (P<0.01). The change noticed was uniformly significant for all the aspects covered in the questionnaire viz. treatment, education, employment, emotional aspects, family and social aspects. This study has shown that group sessions are effective means to impart knowledge and positive attitude towards epilepsy.