Objective:

Assess the knowledge of doctors in Sudan about women issues related to epilepsy.

Background:

Due to a shortage of neurologists and their concentration in the capital of Sudan, many patients with epilepsy in Sudan receive care from non-neurologists. This study aims to highlight doctors' knowledge regarding women issues and epilepsy.

Design/Methods:

In this cross-sectional study that was conducted in Sudan during the period from October 2017 to December 2017, we used Google forms to collect data from 154 doctors using Knowledge of Women Issues and Epilepsy (KOWIE) II standardized questionnaire

Results:

Our studied group included house officers (n = 34), medical officers (n = 60), registrars (n = 52), and specialists (n = 8). The majority of participants were aware of the role of folic acid in reducing teratogenicity of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) (89%) and that women with epilepsy (WWE) should not stop taking their AEDs during pregnancy (76.6%). Two-thirds of participants knew that most WWE have healthy children (68.2%) and that enzyme-inducing AEDs may reduce effectiveness of some contraceptives (72.1%). Half of participants were aware of the association between AEDs and osteomalacia (50%), and more than one-third (38.3%) knew that women taking AEDs can safely breastfeed (38.3%). Few of them (20.1%) knew that WWE have a higher incidence of sexual dysfunction compared with women without epilepsy, and only some (15.6%) knew that estrogen has a proconvulsant effect while progesterone has anticonvulsant qualities. The mean score of our participants was 5.53 out of 10 (standard deviation (SD) ± 1.64). Only registrars with the highest mean knowledge (6.15 ± 1.26) were statistically different from the rest of the medical degree groups

Conclusions:

Sudanese doctors' knowledge was not satisfactory regarding the majority of questions on KOWIE II. Further education and training are indicated to decrease this knowledge gap and to improve care of WWE.