title: Public awareness, knowledge, and practice relating to epilepsy among adults in Konya.
abstract: This study aimed to determine the familiarity with, knowledge of, misunderstandings, and attitudes toward epilepsy among a group of Turkish adults living in Konya, an urban city in central Turkey.
  
  
  
  By using an established familiarity-knowledge-attitudes practice questionnaire, 500 randomly selected adult residents of Konya were interviewed face-to-face. Demographic and sociocultural factors that predicted negative attitudes were determined.
  
  
  
  More than half of all participants (68.4%) reported hearing or reading about epilepsy, 44% knew someone with epilepsy, and 42.2% had witnessed a seizure. The primary source of knowledge was via relatives and friends; Negative attitudes were about marriage and inability to live alone with epilepsy (63.2% objected to marriage and 84% objected to living alone). A preconception of epilepsy being a dangerous and lifelong disease was the primary reason for negative attitudes. Predictors of negative attitudes were female gender, lower educational status, and living in a rural area.
  
  
  
  Negative attitudes regarding the marital status of patients with epilepsy still exist. These may stem from misconceptions about the cause and treatability of epilepsy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Neurology, Selçuk University Faculty of Medicine, Turkey. Electronic address: ayskartal06@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ayşe
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kartal
authors.affiliation: Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Süleyman Demirel University Faculty of Medicine, Turkey.
authors.forename: Abdülbaki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Akyıldız
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001364:Awareness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies / Q000379:methods; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attitudes; Epilepsy; Familiarity; Knowledge; Turkey