Public Attitudes Toward Patients With Epilepsy and Their Opinions on Stigma for Epilepsy: A Case From Eastern Turkey

The aim of the present study was to assess public attitudes toward patients with epilepsy and their views on stigma for epilepsy. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 742 participants, living in the city center of Kars province in the eastern Turkey, between January 2021 and September 2021. An Information Form, the Public Attitudes Toward Epilepsy (PATE) scale, and the Stigma Scale for Epilepsy were used in the study. Mean, standard deviation, percentage, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Shapiro-Wilk test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to analyze the data. It was determined that the participants' PATE-General domain, PATE-Personal domain, and Stigma Scale for Epilepsy total mean scores were 20.11 +/- 4.04, 15.39 +/- 2.01, and 32.49 +/- 7.96, respectively. While 48.1% of the participants had insufficient knowledge about epilepsy, 62.1% had insufficient knowledge about how to help individuals having epileptic seizures. As the perception of a positive attitude toward patients with epilepsy increased, the stigma for epilepsy decreased.