Prevalencia, conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas de epilepsia en la parroquia El Valle, provincia del Azuay, 2009

Abstract

A door to door survey (an “epilepsy handling from primary attention health service project´s pre-intervention phase) was used to determine the prevalence, knowledge, attitude and practice of epilepsy within El Valle, Azuay province, Ecuador. Methods: for prevalence, 2.162 individuals were interviewed (population 21.837) on December of 2009, a standard questionnaire by neurologist was used for the interviewed door to door. For KAPs 454 interviewed were processed. Results: of the 58 (2.7%) presumptive cases, 24 (1.1%) received the diagnosis of epilepsy by the neurologist. The highest prevalence was founded between 20-64 years (79.17%). The highest prevalence was founded in male population, 54.16%. KAPs 78.6% was heard about epilepsy, 53.5% know someone with this illness, 59.3% had at some time witnessed a seizure; 27.3% are unfamiliar with the cause of epilepsy, 26.4% thinks that the cause of epilepsy is hereditary, 15% thinks that the cause is a cerebral illness; related with population attitude, 76.7% will allow their child share with an epileptic boy, 88.5% are agree that the beast treatment is with a neurologist. The most common practice that the people use was professional help. Conclusion: It´s necessary more researches about Epilepsy in our country in order to become Epilepsy part of our primary health care, as we have observed that it is a common condition and has a high social impact. Key words: epilepsy, prevalence, KAPs, El Valle, parrish.