A New Scale to Assess Culture-Specific Beliefs and Attitudes about Epilepsy

A new rating scale to assess cultural diversity in North American people's understanding of epilepsy was developed and its psychometric properties were evaluated. The content of the scale was based on the hypotheses that cultural diversity and experience with epilepsy would be associated with differences in people's beliefs and attitudes about epilepsy. The sample, 117 Caucasians, 71 South Asians, and 40 East Asians, was drawn from a larger study. All participants had completed the newscale, Epilepsy Beliefs and Attitudes Scale (EBAS). Cronbach's coefficient a for the items in the scale was 0.85. A method of principal-axis factor analysis yielded three factors which were referred to as the Neurological, Enviro-psycho-physical, and Metaphysical subscales to emphasize the underlying themes of beliefs and attitudes they represented. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a significant main effect for culture (P < 0.0001), epilepsy status (Caucasians only) (P < 0.007), and epilepsy familiarity group (P < 0.002). Further analysis was conducted between demographic variables, culture, and participants' subscale scores. Results indicated that age, gender, and education were not related to differential responses to the scale. However, a significant effect for the duration of stay in North America was found (P < 0.02). An examination of the role of faith in higher power revealed that the participants may consider both the Neurological and Metaphysical beliefs concurrently. The results provided support for the EBAS as a reliable, valid, and culturally sensitive instrument. (C) 2000 Academic Press