1Senior Instructor, The Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery
2Instructor, Faculty of Health and Community Studies, NorQuest College
3Associate Dean, Post Graduate Medical Education & Associate Professor PGME, The Aga Khan University
4Associate Professor, Microbiology King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, KSA
5Instructor, University of Alberta
6Senior Instructor, The Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery
*Corresponding author: Erum Lalwani, Senior Instructor, The Aga Khan University School of Nursing And Midwifery, Ph: 92-346-2345085, E-mail: erum.lalwani@aku.edu
Online published on 17 April, 2015.
Epilepsy is considered to be a socially and culturally stigmatized disorder. Female patients encountered more deleterious social hurdles than males especially in marriage, education, job, driving, pregnancy, and motherhood. Female patients of marriageable age and their parents encounter challenges regarding the disclosure of diagnosis at the time of marriage negotiation. Therefore, the prevalence rate of disclosure of the diagnosis prior to marriage is significantly low. The purpose of this study was to determine the reasons and consequences of the disclosure of epilepsy diagnosis at the time of women's marriage negotiations.
A sample size of 381 married women suffering from active epilepsy was enrolled through the purposive sampling technique to answer the research questions, from a tertiary healthcare setting in Karachi, Pakistan.
Three key reasons for the pre-marriage disclosure of epilepsy include anticipating disruption in the matrimonial relationship, trustworthiness in the marital relationship, and acceptance from the prospective spouse after knowing the history of the disease. Whereas, respondents have reported four major reasons for the concealment of epilepsy: to prevent proposal rejection, stigma, pressurized by their own family to hide, and myths and misperceptions regarding epilepsy. Epileptic women experience the grave consequence of marriage proposal rejection after sharing the diagnosis with the prospective partners
The awareness among female patients of marriageable age and their parents will assist to make informed decisions regarding marital aspects. This pioneer study is an attempt towards the implementation of one of the goals of the International League against Epilepsy, that is, “making female epileptic patients come out of the shadow and creating an accepting environment for them”.
Active Epilepsy, Pre-marriage, Reasons for disclosure, Stigma
