Primary School Teacher’s knowledge towards Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and its associated factors in Nekemte town, Oromiya Region, Western Ethiopia

Abstract

The work of the teacher becomes much more demanding when some learners have Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), as their problems with attention span, impulse control and activity level frequently interfere with activities in the classroom and socially. This study revealed the teachers good knowledge about ADHD but about 43.7% of primary school teachers had poor knowledge. The objective of the study was to assess the primary school teacher’s knowledge and misconceptions of ADHD and associated factors in Nekemte Town, Oromiya region Western Ethiopia. This study was conducted in Nekemte full Cycle Primary Schools. Nekemte Town, the capital city of East Wollega zone is found 331 km from the capital Addis Ababa to the West. There are 10 government and 20 private full cycle primary schools in the town. Institution based descriptive cross-sectional study were applied. All primary teachers in the selected schools and fulfilling the inclusion criteria were included in this study. Non probability convenience sampling technique was utilized to recruit study participants. The period of the study is from December 2015 to January 2016. The collected data were entered into computer using Epi data version 3.5 and analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 21.0. The Binary logistic regression was fitted to assess possible association and the strength of association was measured using odds ratio with 95% CI. The P<0.05 were considered as statistically significant. The results of the study showed that among 206 primary school teachers majority were in the age group of <=40years of age (62.6%) were 50.5 % are female. Most of the participants are teaching general education (96.6%) and 3.4% were teaching special education. For the 41 items knowledge score was computed and the mean value of 15.4 and standard deviation of 6.9 was calculated. Accordingly 15 score was used to categorize the knowledge level of the study participants. Based on the mean value 56.4 % of study participants have good knowledge and the rest participants have poor or inadequate knowledge. Binary logistic analysis showed no association between knowledge and socio-demographic variables. Lack of reading any books [AOR=1.96; CI 0.60-6.44; p-value=0.26], lack of reading any articles [AOR=1.24, 95% CI= 0.31-4.95; p-value= 0.76], lack of reading any pamphlet [AOR=1.99; 95% CI= 0.52-7.57; p-value=0.31], lack of television watching [AOR=0.73; 95% CI= 0.35-1.54; p-value=0.42],lack of internet browsing [AOR=0.21; 95% CI= 0.04-1.04; p-value=0.05]. were the most important predictors found associated with primary school teacher’s knowledge and misconceptions in this study about ADHD.

Keywords: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Knowledge primary school teacher Western Ethiopia Nekemte