Awareness and attitude of first-year medical students toward epilepsy in University of Khartoum, Sudan.

Purpose: Very little is known about the knowledge and attitude of students about epilepsy at Sudanese universities. Therefore, we aimed to assess knowledge and attitude of undergraduate medical students toward epilepsy.

Methods: A 35-items standardized questionnaire was self-administered to 320 students between December 2020 and February 2021 with a recorded response rate of 61.8%. Google form was used to collect the data. The data was analyzed using R software.

Results: Overall, our findings showed a negative trend in the awareness and attitude towards epilepsy. While the majority of students (84.8%) had read or heard about epilepsy, only 43.9% of them had seen someone with epilepsy. Epilepsy was considered contagious and psychological by 1.7% and 56%, respectively. About 62.2% of students believed head / birth trauma is a cause of epilepsy. On the other hand, 15.7 % and 5.1 % of students thought evil eye and divine retribution are also causes of epilepsy, respectively. The latter beliefs were more uniform among participants from rural background (p < .05). Regarding attitude, 19.7% of students considered it inappropriate for a patient with epilepsy to have a child. This attitude correlates with the mother's education as the percentage was higher for students whose mothers had a lower education (pre-college education) (p < .05). The majority of students were aware that certain people with epilepsy need long-term drug treatment; this belief was more uniform among females than in males (p < .05). The vast majority of students (93.9%) thought that a child with epilepsy could succeed in a normal class. Compared to the corresponding group, this belief was found more common in students whose mothers had a higher education (university level and above) (p < .05).

Conclusion: This study concludes that Sudanese undergraduate students' understanding of epilepsy was minimal, necessitating a well-directed educational campaign to develop a well-informed and tolerant society.