“A comparative study to assess the knowledge regarding epilepsy among the people residing in selected rural and urban areas of bagalkot district with a view to develop an information guide sheet”

Background of the Study: Epilepsy is a neurological disorder in which a person has repeated seizures (convulsions) over time. Those who are new to illness deal with fear, sorrow, and bewilderment and also lack of knowledge of the family members leads to more complications like recurrence.
Methodology: The descriptive comparative survey design was adopted for the present study. The sample for the present study includes 100 people from selected rural and urban areas of Bagalkot District using convenient sampling technique. The data collected using structured interview schedule and data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: Assessment of the level of knowledge of the people reveals that, majority of rural (82%) had Average knowledge and urban (74%) people had good knowledge. A significant difference was found between rural and urban people`s knowledge (Z =12.5) regarding epilepsy. A significant association was found between knowledge of urban people and demographic variables like occupation (χ2=5.09; P<0.05) and history of epilepsy in family (χ2=4.01; P<0.05).
Conclusion: Findings show that, there is significant difference in knowledge of rural and urban people. Thus it is concluded that educational programme should be administered to the rural people to enhance knowledge regarding epilepsy.