title: Impact of an educational comic book on epilepsy-related knowledge, awareness, and attitudes among school children in Ethiopia.
abstract: Epilepsy is of worldwide public health importance because it is common, often accompanied by physical and cognitive disabilities, and is widely stigmatized. The incidence of epilepsy in Ethiopia was reported to be 64/100,000 population and a prevalence of 520/100,000 population. A minority of subjects is treated, and religious and sociocultural beliefs influence the nature of treatment and care. One approach to support the development of positive attitudes toward individuals with disabilities is through the use of comics. Comics have been effective in creating awareness and educating about epilepsy.
  
  
  
  We conducted a cross-sectional study among randomly selected students from two preparatory schools (one from a city and the other from a rural area) in June 2014. We collected information using a structured KAP questionnaire before and after reading a comic book. The comic book relevance was assessed by 40 health professionals.
  
  
  
  One hundred sixteen students from urban and 110 from rural high schools were enrolled in the present study with an age distribution of 31.9% in 16-17years, 48.7% in 18-19years, and 19.5% in 20+years. Thirty percent of the urban school was male compared with sixty-five percent of the rural school. The comic book was recommended as useful educational material to be distributed among school children by 90% of interviewed health professionals (internists, neurologist, psychiatrists, residents, GPs, and nurses).
  
  
  
  The comic book was appreciated by the Ethiopian high school students. After brief exposure to the comic book, students could extract a great deal of information, it could change misconceptions and provide correct information about epilepsy, and can be an effective approach to epilepsy awareness creation. Health professionals found the comic book to be very informative and recommended its distribution to students, teachers, nurses, libraries, and community/religious leaders. Illustrations were Ethiopian-oriented.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Electronic address: gblgtm@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Redda
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tekle-Haimanot
authors.affiliation: INSERM, Univ. Limoges, CHU Limoges, UMR_S 1094, Tropical Neuroepidemiology, Institute of Neuroepidemiology and Tropical Neurology, CNRS FR 3503 GEIST, F-87000 Limoges, France. Electronic address: pierre-marie.preux@unilim.fr.
authors.forename: Pierre Marie
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Preux
authors.affiliation: Access to Medicines Department, Sanofi, Gentilly, France. Electronic address: daniel.gerard@sanofi.com.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gerard
authors.affiliation: Bahir Dar University, Department of Internal Medicine, Bahir Dar 79, Ethiopia. Electronic address: davulala@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Dawit Kibru
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Worku
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa 1171, Ethiopia. Electronic address: hanna.demissie@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hanna Demissie
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Belay
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa 1171, Ethiopia. Electronic address: merianair@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Meron Awraris
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Gebrewold
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001877:Books; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004827:Epilepsy; D005002:Ethiopia; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D012424:Rural Population; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attitude; Comic book; Epilepsy; Knowledge; Practice; Seizure