Knowledge attitudes and practice toward epilepsy among adults in BaVi, Vietnam: first report from the population-based EPIBAVI study.

Purpose: We conducted a survey to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practice toward epilepsy in a population-based study in a rural district of Vietnam.

Methods: We utilized an established knowledge-attitudes-practice questionnaire. This was applied by trained surveyors in face-to-face interviews of 2005 randomly selected adult residents (19-71 years of age) of the BaVi district, 60 km west of Hanoi.

Results: Of the respondents, 67.0% had heard about epilepsy, 52.1% had known someone with seizures, and 49.3% had witnessed seizures. In total, 36.3% would object to their children playing with someone with seizures and 82.0% to their children marrying someone with epilepsy. Only 32.6% thought that epilepsy patients should be employed in a job as other people, while 10% thought that epilepsy was a form of insanity. Familiarity with epilepsy, having heard of epilepsy, known someone with epilepsy, or having seen seizures was associated with less negative attitudes. About half of the respondents (50.4%) thought epilepsy was caused by a brain disease and 80.1% would suggest consultation of a medical doctor for epilepsy.

Conclusions: Knowledge of epilepsy among Vietnamese people is still limited compared to some Western countries and the attitudes more negative. Our findings indicated more negative attitudes than in another recent survey from Vietnam. This may be due to differences in sociodemographic characteristics and educational level of the study populations. The discrepancies demonstrate the importance of selection of study population and the need for caution in generalizing from results of surveys.