Citation

Okumura A, Nakazawa M, Abe S, Ikeno M, Igarashi A, Shimizu T. Epilepsy Behav. 2015; 48: 41-44.

Affiliation

Department of Pediatrics, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine, Japan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.yebeh.2015.04.053

PMID

26037848

Abstract

To evaluate changes in the attitudes of nonmedical students about epilepsy, the present study compared the results of a questionnaire that was completed in three different time periods: before media coverage of car accidents associated with epilepsy, during a period of abundant media coverage about epilepsy-related accidents, and after media coverage of epilepsy-related accidents. The nonmedical students who completed the questionnaire were divided into three groups: Years 08-10 (preaccident era), Years 11-12 (media coverage era), and Years 13-14 (postmedia coverage era). The rates of students who had read or heard about epilepsy and of students who did not think that epilepsy was a mental disorder increased annually throughout the study period. There was an improvement in attitudes about epilepsy after the media coverage era, and this change was not altered even after a decrease in the media coverage of epilepsy-related car accidents. Additionally, the rate of positive answers did not differ between Years 11-12 and Years 13-14. These findings demonstrate that the familiarity with and improved attitudes about epilepsy were sustained even after the media coverage of car accidents involving persons with epilepsy had decreased.

Language: en