Assessment of Maternal Care Provided To Their Epileptic Children At Zagazig University Hospitals

Elshiekh, Dalia Elsaeed; El-Dakhakhny, Amal Mohamed; Moustafa, Khadiga Zain El- Abdeen

doi:10.12816/0029294

Assessment of Maternal Care Provided To Their Epileptic Children At Zagazig University Hospitals

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Demonstrator of Pediatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Zagazig University

² Professor of Pediatric Nursing , Faculty of Nursing, Zagazig University

³ Lecturer of Pediatric Nursing, faculty of nursing, zagazig university

10.12816/0029294

Abstract

Background: Epilepsy is the commonest serious neurological condition of childhood. It is a
group of chronic disorders in which the indispensable feature is recurrence of seizure.
Parents, especially mothers play the most significant role in caring for their children and
helping them adapt to their conditions. Aim of the study was to assess maternal care
provided to their epileptic children at Zagazig University Hospitals. Subjects & methods:
Research design: A descriptive – cross sectional design was used. Setting: at the
Pediatric neurology outpatient clinic at Zagazig University Hospital. Subject: 120
mothers of children with epilepsy.. Tools of data collection: three tools were used in this
study; the first was a questionnaire interview sheet to collect data about studied mothers
and their children. The second was seizure severity scale. The third tool was a
questionnaire sheet about mothers' knowledge regarding practices in caring for their
epileptic children.Results indicated that the mean age of the studied mothers was 33.3 ±
6.4 years. The majority of them were housewives and 39.2% of them had diploma education. It
was showed that, 59.2% of them did nothing at the beginning of fit. During an epileptic fit, 37.5%
of mothers did nothing while, 44.2% of them mentioned unfavorable practices such as,
stimulating the child by pouring water and beating, restricting or shacking the child to awake
him/her up. As regards care practices after fit, 57.5% of mothers did nothing. Moreover, it was
found that 67.5% of mothers didn't take any action to manage side effects of antiepileptic drugs.
About 51.6% of epileptic children had severed degree of seizure. Conclusions: most of the
studied mothers had poor practices score in caring for their children with epilepsy and only
11.7% of them had fair practices. Based on the results of the present study, it could be
recommended that educational programs for mothers of epileptic children about epilepsy
and its care should be conducted.

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