Improving awareness, knowledge and awareness with epilepsy educational programme for Malaysian parents of children with epilepsy / Seet Yee Hong

• Main Author: Seet , Yee Hong
• Format: Thesis
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: R Medicine (General)
• Online Access: http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/8984/4/seet_yee_hong.pdf; http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/8984/

Introduction: Good awareness, knowledge and attitudes of parents of children with epilepsy (CWE) is important in enabling CWE to lead a normal life with epilepsy. The interactive animated epilepsy education programme (IAEEP) is a potential effective epilepsy educational tool that can help improve awareness, knowledge, attitude (AKA) of parents of CWA. Primary Objectives: i) To assess the baseline level of epilepsy AKA of Malaysian parents of children with epilepsy (CWE). ii) To assess the effectivenes of Interactive Animated Epilepsy Education Programme (IAEEP) on improving parents AKA, and whether these effects remained stable over time. Secondary Objectives: i) To evaluate epilepsy and parenteral characteristics that are associated with baseline level of epilepsy AKA in parents of CWE. ii) To assess the effects of IAEEP on parent and child epilepsy health-related quality of life. (HRQoL) Methodology: Prospective intervcntional study or all parents of CWE aged 8-18 years old with at least 6 months duration of epilepsy, minimum reading Ievel of primary school education Year 1 and attending mainstream education. Informatin of epilepsy was delivered to child and parents of CWE using IAEEP. Parents completed an AKA questionnaire before (TP I), immediately after (TP 2) and retested 3-6 month (TP 3) after the epolepsy information provision. Parents and CWE completed perent-proxy and child self-report of Health-Related Quality or Life Measurement for Children with Epilepsy (CHEQOL-25) questionnaire at TP I and TP3. Results: A total of 78 participants (both parent and children) participated in the study. After IAEEP intervention, there was a significant increment from TP1 of total parental AKA, awareness, knowledge and attitude score in both TP2 and TP3 (p value >0.001). None of the epilepsy or parental characteristics affected the baseline parental AKA levels. CHEQOL for parents between TP 1 and TP3 showed significant increment in interpersonal/social and significant decrement in present worries subscale scores. At TP3, high parental total AKA scores were associated with higher CHEQOL scores for children, [p <0.00 I and rs=+0.425(moderate correlation)]. Conclusion: Clinicians should use the IAEEP as part of the care of Malaysian CWE as IAEEP is an effective IT- based epilepsy educational tool to raise the level AKA among parent with CWE. After IAEEP intervention there was an improvement in both parents and child CH QOL interpersonal/ social subscale and parent CHEQOL secrecy subscale scores. Our study also showed a positive correlation between parent's AKA and child's total CHEQOL scores. Children who receive the IAEEP showed an increase in level of worry, highlighting that CWE should receive ongoing support as they undergo a period or adjustment when dealing with the information provided.