School Performance of Nigerian Adolescents with Epilepsy

• Published in: Epilepsia (Copenhagen) Vol. 47; no. 2; pp. 415 - 420
• Main Authors: Adewuya, Abiodun O., Oseni, Saheed B. A., Okeniyi, John A. O.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 350 Main Street , Malden , MA 02148 , USA and 9600 Garsington Road , Oxford , OX4 2XG , England Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.02.2006; Blackwell
• Subjects: Academic performance; Achievement; Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior - psychology; Adolescents; African Continental Ancestry Group - psychology; African Continental Ancestry Group - statistics & numerical data; Age Factors; Anticonvulsants - therapeutic use; Anticonvulsants. Antiepileptics. Antiparkinson agents; Attitude to Health; Biological and medical sciences; Caregivers - psychology; Child; Childhood; Cross‐cultural; Diseases of the nervous system; Epilepsy; Epilepsy - drug therapy; Epilepsy - epidemiology; Epilepsy - psychology; Female; Headache. Facial pains. Syncopes. Epilepsia. Intracranial hypertension. Brain oedema. Cerebral palsy; Health Status; Humans; Learning Disorders - diagnosis; Learning Disorders - epidemiology; Learning Disorders - psychology; Male; Medical sciences; Mental Disorders - epidemiology; Mental Disorders - psychology; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Neuropharmacology; Nigeria - ethnology; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Psychopathology; Radiotherapy. Instrumental treatment. Physiotherapy. Reeducation. Rehabilitation, orthophony, crenotherapy. Diet therapy and various other treatments (general aspects); Risk Factors; Sex Factors; Stereotyping; Students - psychology; Students - statistics & numerical data; Nigeria; Human; Nervous system diseases; Epilepsy; Central nervous system disease; Adolescent; Risk factor; Adolescents-Childhood-Epilepsy-Risk factors- Academic performance-Cross-cultural-Psychopathology; Psychopathology; Performance; Child; Cerebral disorder
• ISSN: 0013-9580; 1528-1167
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1528-1167.2006.00437.x

Purpose: The study assessed the school performance of Nigerian adolescents with epilepsy compared with healthy controls and examined the variables correlating with their academic difficulties. Methods: The school grades of adolescents with epilepsy aged 12 to 18 years (n = 73) over the past academic year were compared with the grades of their classmates of the same age and gender. Risk factors possibly associated with school performance, such as adolescent variables (age, gender, perceived stigma, attitude toward epilepsy, and psychopathology), seizure variables (age at onset of illness, years of illness, types of seizures, and frequency of seizures per month), drug variables [types of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), number of AEDs and side effects of AEDs], and family variables (family's socioeconomic status, family functioning, caretakers' psychopathology, and caretakers' perceived stigma) were assessed. Results: The mean school grades of adolescents with epilepsy are significantly lower than are those of their healthy controls (p < 0.001) in all the subjects. The variables that significantly predict poor school performance in adolescents with epilepsy include psychopathology in the caretaker (p < 0.001), adolescents' perceived poor family functioning (p = 0.002), adolescents' attitude toward the illness (p = 0.001), adolescents' felt stigma (p = 0.002), externalizing symptoms in the adolescents (p = 0.004), and duration of illness (p = 0.024). Conclusions: The determinants of poor school performance in adolescents with epilepsy in Nigeria are multivariate, with psychosocial factors most important. These should be noted for early identification and screening of those children at greatest risk for academic failure and the greatest need for appropriate educational remediation services.