Adults' attitudes to children with epilepsy: the use of a visual analogue scale questionnaire

A new visual analogue questionnaire was used to compare attitudes to epilepsy in childhood among the parents of three groups of children, one with epilepsy, one with diabetes and one with healthy children. The results showed that there were more similarities than differences between the groups. The parents of the children with epilepsy were knowledgeable about the educational and behavioural problems of children with epilepsy, although they often regarded epilepsy as a sign of serious disease. There was also an association between the severity of their child's epilepsy and high questionnaire scores among the parents of children with epilepsy. This questionnaire could be used by paediatricians to assess whether parents' views are realistic for their child and also to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention study to modify inappropriate attitudes among parents of children with epilepsy.