Determining the health-seeking behaviors of people with epilepsy

Purpose: Health-seeking behaviors of individuals who have epilepsy might affect the treatment of the disease, recovery process, and self-care activities. The present study was conducted to determine the health-seeking behaviors of individuals who have epilepsy. Materials and methods: The present study was conducted in a descriptive and cross-sectional design with 190 epilepsy patients who applied to the Neurology Clinic in the north and east of Turkey between April 2023 and January 2024. The data of the study were collected by using the Introductory Data Form, Health-Seeking Behavior Scale (HSBS). The IBM SPSS 27 software, variance analysis, Tamhane T2, ANOVA Test, Tukey Test, and Multiple Regression Analysis were used to evaluate the study data. Results: The mean score of the online health-seeking behavior sub-dimension of the Health-Seeking Behavior Scale of the individuals who had epilepsy was found to be 13.32 ± 5.40, the mean score of the professional health-seeking behavior sub-dimension was 9.92 ± 2.75, and the mean score of the traditional health-seeking behavior sub-dimension was 8.46 ± 3.29. No significant differences were detected between individuals’ sex, seizure types, and health-seeking behaviors, and a significant difference was detected between marital status, educational status, place of residence, occupation, income level, seizure frequency, and medication use status and health-seeking behaviors (p < 0.05). According to the multiple linear regression analysis that was used to examine the effects of sociodemographic characteristics of individuals with epilepsy on health seeking behavior scale scores, it was found that sociodemographic characteristics such as educational status, place of residence, marital status, and age significantly affected online, professional, and traditional health seeking behavior scores. Conclusion: In conclusion, it was found in the present study that the online health-seeking behavior of the individuals who had epilepsy was higher than other health-seeking behaviors. The health-seeking behaviors of patients were affected by sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., marital status, educational status, place of residence, occupation, income level, seizure frequency, and medication use). It is of great importance to conduct larger future studies on individuals who have epilepsy and are seeking traditional treatment for epileptic seizures because the sources from which health information is obtained might affect the diagnosis, treatment, and recovery processes.