Epilepsy in Laos Knowledge, attitudes, and practices in the community》.pdf

Epilepsy Behavior 10 (2007) 565–570 /locate/yebeh Epilepsy in Laos: Knowledge, attitudes, and practices in the community Duc-Si Tran a,c, Peter Odermatt a,b, Soukhanthone Singphuoangphet a, Michel Druet-Cabanac c, Pierre-Marie Preux c, Michel Strobel a, Hubert Barennes a,* a ´ Institut de la Francophonie pour la Medecine Tropicale, Vientiane, Lao Democratic people’s Republic b Department of Public Health Epidemiology, Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel, Switzerland c ´ Institut d’Epidemiologie Neurologique et de Neurologie Tropicale (EA 3174), Limoges, France Received 8 January 2007; revised 23 February 2007; accepted 27 February 2007 Available online 18 April 2007 Abstract Objective. We evaluated beliefs about, attitudes toward, and stigma associated with epilepsy in four districts of central Laos. Method. For this study, 83 people with epilepsy, 83 family members, and 166 matched villagers in Vientiane Province were interviewed. Results. From patients to families to villagers, there existed a significantly increasing gradient of misbeliefs. Dubbed locally as ‘‘mad pig disease,’’ epilepsy was viewed as having a supernatural origin by 25–42% of respondents, a life-threatening disease by 60%, a disease transmissible by consumption of pork meat by 10–21%, and a disease transmissible by contact with patients’ saliva by 14.5% of patients and 44% of villagers (P 0.01). Stigma was high. People thought that they should avoid contact or sharing meals with patients (15% of patients, 62% of family