Outcome of Epilepsy Education to Frontline Rural Health Workers in India
Abstract number :
2.363
Submission category :
17. Public Health
Year :
2021
Submission ID :
1826458
Source :
www.aesnet.org
Presentation date :
12/5/2021 12:00:00 PM
Published date :
Nov 22, 2021, 06:54 AM
Authors :
NIRMAL SURYA, MD, DNB, FIAN,MNAMS,FRCP - Epilepsy Foundation India; Ram sankaraneni - Creighton University School of Medicine; Sanjay singh - Creighton University School of Medicine
Rationale: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 50 million people are suffering from Epilepsy across the globe, out of which 80% people reside in the developing countries. Nearly 12 million people with epilepsy are in India; which is a significant portion of the global burden. The majority of patients with epilepsy in India live in the rural areas.
The ASHA or accredited social health activist (ASHA) is a community health worker instituted by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare as a part of India's National Rural Health Mission. The mission began in 2005 and the goal is to have an ASHA worker in every village in India. ASHA is a woman resident of the village. She is the frontline health worker in the village. So, if we want to advance the cause of epilepsy awareness and appropriate epilepsy care we must educate the ASHA workers first.
Methods: A 2-hour epilepsy education session was held with ASHA workers in Maharashtra by Neurologists. Then a survey containing 13 questions was administered to the ASHA workers to evaluate their knowledge of epilepsy. The survey was administered in the local language of Marathi. A total of 1613 ASHA participated in the educational program and the survey.
Results: 81% of the ASHA workers answered yes to the question that they knew what is epilepsy. 79.3% knew that epilepsy is a brain disorder. 68.4% of ASHA workers knew that the treatment may need to be taken for life. 81.5% of the ASHA workers answered Yes to the question - Did you know that if you continue to have seizures with your current medication, you should change the medication. 63.4 % of ASHA workers knew what to do during a seizure. 79.9% of ASHA workers knew that seizures can be controlled by medications. 64% were aware of the fact that there are different types of seizures. But the majority of ASHA workers thought that “black magic,” a local myth, can cause seizures.
Conclusions: Epilepsy education seems to be well equipped in educating frontline healthcare workers about the basics of Epilepsy. But it seems to be less effective in dispelling inaccurate local myths about epilepsy that have existed for a long time. And so, in designing such epilepsy education programs for frontline health workers it would be advisable to specially focus on this aspect in the future.
Funding: Please list any funding that was received in support of this abstract.: none.
Public Health