Evaluation of nursing students' health fatalism, knowledge, and attitudes toward patients with epilepsy.

AIM: This study was conducted to determine the relationship between nursing students' health fatalism, epilepsy knowledge, attitudes, and some sociodemographic variables. METHODS: The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 423 nursing department students who were studying at a state university and who agreed to participate in the study in the Elazig province in eastern Turkey during the 2020-2021 academic year. The data were collected using a Sociodemographic Information Form, the Health Fatalism Scale (HFS), the Epilepsy Knowledge Scale (EKS), and the Epilepsy Attitude Scale (EAS). RESULTS: The nursing students had total mean scores of 46.95 ±â€¯12.98, 6.94 ±â€¯3.81, and 50.19 ±â€¯8.47 for the HFS, EKS, and EAS, respectively. A positive and significant correlation was found between the EKS and EAS scores. First-year students had lower HFS scores than students in their second and fourth years. Third- and fourth-year students, those living in rural areas, and those who had patients with epilepsy in their families or immediate environments had higher EKS scores. Female students and those who had patients with epilepsy in their families or immediate environments had higher EKS and EAS scores. A significant positive correlation was found between age and the EKS score, whereas a significant negative correlation was found between age and the EAS score. CONCLUSION: While nursing students generally had low levels of epilepsy knowledge, they had positive attitudes toward epilepsy and moderate levels of health fatalism. The study found that students' positive attitudes toward epilepsy increased as their levels of knowledge about the disorder increased. Age, gender, educational status, place of residence, the presence of a chronic disease, and knowing someone with epilepsy all affected HFS, EKS, and EAS scores.

Evaluation of attitudes toward epilepsy and health fatalism in northeastern Turkey.

PURPOSE: This study was carried out to identify the attitudes toward epilepsy, health fatalism, and the factors affecting these in individuals living in Artvin in the northeast of Turkey. METHOD: This descriptive and cross-sectional study involved 1443 healthy individuals at a hospital in Artvin in northeastern Turkey between January and March 2020. An individual information form, an epilepsy attitude scale, and a religious health fatalism scale were used to assess their views. An independent sample t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson correlation analysis were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The mean score of participants' attitudes on epilepsy was 48.17 (standard deviation (SD) = 12.93), while the mean of their health fatalism score was 48.43 (SD = 17.41). There was a significant negative correlation between attitude scores and health fatalism (r = -0.084, p = 0.001). Significant differences were found among attitude, health fatalism mean scores, and misconceptions associated with religion about epilepsy being a contagious, psychiatric, and incurable disease that should be hidden. Significant differences were additionally observed among attitude, health fatalism mean scores, and education, marital status, income, employment status, and presence of chronic disease (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: It was found that most individuals had moderate level attitude toward epilepsy and had high health fatalism. Individuals with a high degree of health fatalism were found to have more negative attitude toward epilepsy. Attitude was found to be more negative, and health fatalism was found to be higher in individuals with low education level, low-income level, who were married, who were unemployed, who had a chronic disease, and in those who thought epilepsy was a contagious, psychiatric, and incurable disease associated with religion that should be hidden. IMPLICATIONS: It is recommended that health professionals organize training programs to increase public understanding of epilepsy, improving individual attitudes toward the condition, and minimizing health fatalism.

Stigma perception and health fatalism in parents of children with epilepsy: A cross-sectional study.

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the factors that affect stigma perceptions and health fatalism of parents of children with epilepsy in eastern Turkey, the relationship between these and the impact of these on their social lives. Method: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted between August 2022 and January 2023 with the parents of children under the age of 18 who had been diagnosed with epilepsy for at least 1 year and who were followed up in the only hospital with a paediatric neurology outpatient clinic in Van province of Turkey. No sample selection was made in the study. Healthy parents (n = 123) who presented to the outpatient clinic within the specified time period and who agreed to participate in the study after being explained the purpose of the study participated in the study. Results: In this study, parental age was found to have a statistically weak positive correlation with Health Fatalism Scale (HFS) (r = 0.251; p = 0.005). A weak positive correlation was also found between the years patients had epilepsy and Parent Stigma Scale (PSS) (r = 0.275; p = 0.002). In addition, a statistically positive and weak relationship was found between Parent Stigma Scale scores and Health Fatalism Scale scores (r = 0.212; p = 0.018). This study found significant relationships between stigma perception and health fatalism in parents of epileptic children. Stigma perception increased with disease duration and lower parental education levels. Conclusion: While providing an important basis for understanding the difficulties experienced by parents and developing support mechanisms, the present study can contribute to more informed support for parents of patients with epilepsy in the community. Nurses can contribute to ending stigma and discrimination by identifying patients' and parents' perceptions of epilepsy, focusing on addressing gaps in knowledge and raising awareness in the community.

Are Health Fatalism and Styles of Coping with Stress Affected by Poverty? A Field Study.

Background: Fatalism is an important parameter that affects individuals' understanding of health. In addition, stress and economic status, such as fatalism, are important factors that affect an individual's understanding of health. In this context, there may be an important link between stress, economic situation and fatalism. This study was conducted to determine whether health fatalism levels and styles of coping with stress are affected by poverty. Methods: This cross-sectional field study involved participants consisted of 382 individuals living in the two-Family Health Center regions in Turkey in 2018. The data collection phase continued for approximately three months. Collecting the data were used, namely demographic introduction form, Health Fatalism Scale, Styles of Coping with Stress Scale, and Individual Poverty Index. The data were analysed using SPSS 22 package program. Results: The difference between the average health fatalism score in poor and non-poor individuals was statistically significant (P<0.05). There was a weak, positive, and significant relationship between health fatalism score and optimistic, helpless, and submissive approach scores in both poor and non-poor individuals (P<0.05). Conclusion: While individuals' health fatalism level was affected by poverty, their style of coping with stress was not affected. Still, there was a significant relationship between health fatalism level and their style of coping with stress.

Psychometric properties of the Indonesia version religious health fatalism questionnaire in diabetic foot ulcer outpatients.

Background: Religious health fatalism belief that health outcome is only determined by God without seeking treatment. Tools are needed to measure fatalism among patients with chronic disease, especially diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) patients. The aim of this study was to conduct psychometric test of religious health fatalism questionnaire (RHFQ) including translation, validation, reliability, and cut-off point among DFU out-patients. Design and methods: This study employed cross sectional design, using self-report questionnaire. Data were collected from diabetes clinic in five hospitals, Indonesia. The inclusion criteria were patients who had history of DFU more than 2 years. Total sample in this study was 184 patients. This study was conducted from April to June 2021. Permission to use the RHFQ was permitted by the original author. We conducted translation and adaptation questionnaire to Bahasa. We employed reliability test with internal consistency, construct validity, and convergent validity. Construct validity was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Cut-off point RHS was analyzed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC). ROC was evaluated using correlation score between total score RHFQ and CDRISC-25 Indonesia version. Previous study mentioned that resilience is a predictor of religious. The Cronbach's alpha for RHFQ Indonesia version was adequate. Results: EFA showed adequate with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value of 0.72 and the Bartlett's test of sphericity was significant. According to ROC curve analysis, the cut-off point at a score 67.5 indicated the best sensitivity and specificity. Conclusions: RHFQ Indonesia version had reliability and validity for screening religious health fatalism among DFU outpatients.

Evaluation of Health Science Students' Health Fatalism and Perception Towards Patients With Epilepsy: A Cross-Sectional Global Study.

Introduction The social acceptance of patients with epilepsy is largely determined by society's opinion of epilepsy; therefore, individuals with epilepsy could face prejudice and stigma as a result of negative impressions. Religious beliefs and mystical notions have been shown to influence attitudes toward epilepsy. Health fatalism could also be detrimental to society's and caregivers' approach toward such patients. In extreme settings, this could hinder them from obtaining an adequate treatment process. Methods A cross-sectional exploratory study was conducted from February 2022 to May 2022 in Saudi Arabia, Spain, Scotland, and Italy using an online questionnaire consisting of 33 questions concerning the Health Fatalism Scale (HFS), the Epilepsy Knowledge Scale (EKS), and the Epilepsy Attitude Scale (EAS). Results A total of 735 health science students (HSS) participated in the present study. The majority of participants were females (64.1%) while male participants represented 34.6% of the study. Health science students currently studying in Saudi Arabia represented the majority of participants with a percentage of 58.5%. Among the four countries, students in Saudi Arabia presented with the highest knowledge mean score. Students in Spain had the highest mean attitude score. Muslim students had the highest mean fatalism scores followed by Christian students. Conclusion In general, a high level of knowledge was observed among the participants, most notably, among Saudis who presented with the highest level of knowledge across the four countries. Regarding attitude, Spanish students presented the best attitude towards patients with epilepsy. Low fatalism scores were commonly observed across all countries regardless of their different demographic characteristics. Fatalism perception should be further detailed to ensure optimal services are delivered without prejudgment by future healthcare workers.