Familiarity with and attitudes towards epilepsy among teachers at Czech elementary schools--the effect of personal experience and subspecialization

This study was intended to study the effect of personal experience and subspecialization on the knowledge of epilepsy of teachers at Czech elementary schools, and on their attitudes towards children with epilepsy and on epilepsy itself in general. 193 teachers from 10 different elementary schools in Pilsen, Czech Republic, were involved in the study. We found that teachers with personal experience of epilepsy had greater knowledge of the illness. There were significant differences (P<0.05) between the attitudes of teachers with and without personal experience, mostly in terms of their views on the self-realization and the integration of children with epilepsy into the school collective. In contrast, no differences were found in their views of the intellectual capabilities of children with epilepsy or the overall quality of life of children with epilepsy. Furthermore, we found that subspecialization, aside from a few exceptions given by the specific position of first grade teachers, did not have major effect on teachers' knowledge of epilepsy and their attitudes towards children with epilepsy. The results suggest that it would be appropriate to focus educational interventions about epilepsy for teachers on those individuals who do not have any experience of epilepsy.