Stigma and attitudes on epilepsy - A study with secondary school students

Purpose: To evaluate whether an inappropriate attitude towards a person having an epileptic seizure contributes to the stigma found in society and whether an appropriate attitude helps to diminish it in the short term; to perform a long term investigation about information remembered and stigma perception after an educational lecture. Method. This study was performed in two steps: Step 1. students of first year of high school of two schools in Campinas completed a questionnaire including the Stigma Scale of Epilepsy following a seizure demonstration. They were divided into three groups: a) one group had a demonstration of proper attitudes towards someone having an epileptic seizure; b) one group was shown incorrect procedures; c) control group. After the completion of the questionnaire, an educational lecture about epilepsy was given. Step 2: six months later, the questionnaire was re-administered. Results: The comparison between the four groups (step 1 and step 2) show a significant difference (Anova (3,339)=2.77; p=0.042). Pairwise comparison using Fisher's Least-Significant-Difference Test showed a significant difference between the group shown incorrect procedures (step 1) versus step 2, and the control group (step 1) versus step 2, but no difference between the group shown correct procedures (step 1) versus step 2. Discussion: Exhibiting proper attitudes towards a person experiencing an epileptic seizure may cause significant differences among the subjects' degrees of stigma towards people with epilepsy. It is therefore fundamental that there should be de-stigmatization campaigns provided, to correct information and provide appropriate education

The effects of sounds and food odour on crowd behaviours in urban public open spaces

Few studies have investigated the integrated effects of sound and odour on people with the purpose of improving the use of urban spaces. Therefore, this study aimed to provide further insight into such effects from the perspective of crowd behaviour. A covert behavioural observation experiment was conducted in a typical urban commercial pedestrian street, using the smell of a bakery as the odour source, while reproducing typical urban sound sources of music and fan sound (along with a condition where no sound was played) with and without odour. The present results show that for crowd path, in the no-odour condition, playing music significantly attracted the crowd, while fan sound tended to make the crowd path farther away from the sensory sources. With the bakery odour, individuals approached the sensory sources closer when playing the sound, whether it was music or fan sound. With regard to crowd speed, music significantly reduced it and the greater the proximity to the sound source, the slower the crowd speed. Fan sound increased the crowd speed, which was significantly higher in the presence rather than absence of bakery odour, and the average speed decreased gradually as proximity to the sensory sources increased. Finally, with regard to the duration time of the crowd, it increased with music and decreased with fan sound. The bakery odour also significantly increased the duration time. However, the interaction effect between sound and odour on crowd speed and duration time was not significant