Attitude towards Epilepsy and Mental Illness in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was designed to find out the attitude of people in Ekiti State
Nigeria, towards epilepsy and mental illness in terms of work opportunities
and marriage options and to examine whether the level of education, gender and religious affiliation would affect people’s attitude towards person with these disorders. 200 participants were used and it comprised 106 literate and 94 illiterate persons. The independent t-test and the Pearson Product Moment Correlation were used to test the hypotheses. The result showed that literate respondents had more positive attitude towards epilepsy and mental illness with mean scores of 9.78 and 8.11 respectively. Also, male respondents showed a significantly positive attitude towards epilepsy with a mean score of 11.09 as against the mean score of the female respondents (10.57). No significant difference was found between the attitudes of males and females towards mental illness, while religious affiliation had a significant effect on the respondent’s attitudes. 78.3% (for mental illness) and 43.9% (for epilepsy) of the respondents were of the opinion that people with the disorders should not be employed while 55.6% (for mental illness) and 60.3% (for epilepsy) believed that they should not marry. Recommendations were made in the light of the need for more research concerning the effect of gender on the attitude towards epilepsy and mental illness and that educating the general public will reduce the negative attitudes towards those disorders