Public awareness, understanding & attitudes toward epilepsy.

The public awareness, understanding and attitudes towards epilepsy were evaluated in a north Indian population in 1992 by personal interview method. The study revealed that 92 per cent of the respondents had read or heard about epilepsy. More than 55 per cent knew someone and had seen a case of seizure. Eighty five per cent of the respondents were not aware of the cause of epilepsy or had wrong beliefs. Eighteen and 15 per cent thought epilepsy to be a hereditary disorder and a form of insanity respectively. About 40 per cent of the respondents felt that children with epilepsy should not be sent to school and also objected to their children's contact with epileptics at school or at play. Two-thirds of the respondents objected to their children marrying a person who had ever had epilepsy. Twenty per cent were ignorant about the manifestation of epilepsy and an equal number were unable to recommend any therapy in case their relatives or friends had epilepsy. Fifty seven per cent did not know what kind of first aid should be given during the epileptic attack. Although the awareness of epilepsy among Indian people was comparable to that of individuals in Western countries, the attitudes of the Indians were much more negative. Better educated people belonging to higher occupational groups were less prejudiced against social contact and schooling of their children with epileptic children compared to low educational and occupational groups.

Development of mother-infant attachment scale.

A 15 item mother-infant attachment scale was developed. It is a simple, brief and easy to comprehend even by the illiterate rural woman. The split half reliability was found to be 0.83 and there was high internal consistency. It has high face and construct validity. The babies separated for longer period had shown lesser attachment subsequently, compared to those who had no separation.

Maternal attitudes towards spastic cerebral palsy.

Attitudes of 120 mothers of spastic children aged 2-12 yrs were assessed by using Mother's Attitude Scale. Attitudes of mothers towards spastics were highly influenced by the severity of handicap and IQ of the child (r < 0.74). Mother's education, family income, occupational status, type of habitat had significant but low correlation with her attitudes (0.23 to 0.35). Age, sex of the child and type of family did not influence attitudes. Study group mothers (rural or urban) have better attitudes towards spasticity compared to control group mothers. This difference was more discernible among mothers belonging to age group below 30 years of age. The study emphasizes the necessity of constant counselling of mothers so that their attitudes may improve and help in more effective care of the child.

Impact of acute diarrhoea & oral rehydration solution on nutritional status of preschool children.

A total of 838 children under 5 yr of age were followed up in 2 villages of Punjab for a period of one year for diarrhoea morbidity, oral rehydration solution (ORS) usage and nutritional status. Overall frequency of diarrhoea was 0.78 episode/child/year. Children weighing less than or equal to 70 per cent of reference weight for age had about 25 per cent higher incidence of diarrhoea (102 episodes/100 child/yr) as compared to those who weighed greater than or equal to 71 per cent (75 episodes/100 children/yr; P less than 0.05). At the end of one year there was no significant difference in the weight and arm circumference growth of children who had diarrhoea and received ORS and those who did not. Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for age criteria) in children with and without diarrhoea at the beginning and end of the study also remained unchanged, irrespective of ORS usage. These observations indicate that in rural areas with low diarrhoea morbidity (i) pre-existing malnutrition (weight for age less than 70%) is associated with 25 per cent higher diarrhoea incidence; (ii) acute diarrhoea does not significantly affect weight and arm circumference growth and prevalence of malnutrition; and (iii) the long-term nutritional benefit of ORS if any, is doubtful.