Assessment of epilepsy awareness, knowledge, and attitudes among preclinical and clinical medical students in the West Bank of Palestine.

Objective: The purpose of this research was to evaluate the level of epilepsy-related awareness, knowledge, and attitude exhibited by medical students at a specific medical school in Palestine, as well as the students' reactions to the treatment and social activities provided to patients with epilepsy.

Methods: A cross-sectional, observational research of 306 medical students at An-Najah National University in the West Bank, Palestine, was conducted. We used a validated survey taken from previous publications. We split the medical students into preclinical (2nd and 3rd year) and clinical (4th, 5th, and 6th year) groups to see if there were significant differences in their awareness, knowledge, attitude, and their practices toward patients with epilepsy. Several elements, such as sociodemographics, awareness, knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding epilepsy, were included in the survey. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 29.0. Quantitative data were expressed as mean and standard deviation, whereas qualitative data as frequencies and percentages. The chi-square test was used to compare groups.Any P-value below 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: In general, clinical medical students exhibited better epilepsy awareness, knowledge, and attitude than preclinical students. Of note, 73.6% of clinical students believe epilepsy is a treatable disorder, compared to 44.6% of preclinical students (P-value < 0.001). Some students believe that depression/anxiety (39.6%), psychosis (35.7%), jinns (evil spirit) (7.8%), evil eye (5.8%), and punishment from God (4.5%) cause epilepsy. Clinical students were more likely than preclinical students to have rotated in a neurology clinic or department (40% vs. 4.6%, P-value < 0.001). In total, 95.5% of clinical students and 86.9% of preclinical students (P-value = 0.006) thought patients with epilepsy should marry. Clinical stage students were more likely than preclinical stage students to think that patients with epilepsy can have children (92.7% vs. 83.1%, P-value = 0.009). Preclinical stage students were more likely than clinical stage students to believe that students with epilepsy should not play sports (22.3% versus 13%, P-value = 0.030). Generally, there were no significant gender differences in awareness, knowledge, and attitudes.

Conclusion: The study found that medical students knew little about epilepsy types, causes, triggers, and first aid. Negative attitudes toward people with epilepsy living alone and discrimination against people with epilepsy were also observed. Students' perceptions of this prevalent disease must be improved through educational programs that provide increased opportunities for clinical exposure to this condition as well as proper inclusion of epilepsy in the regular curriculum.