Abstracts

Rationale: This study examined the concerns of living in Korean epilepsy patients and determined which factors contribute to the concerns of living. Methods: Data were collected from 178 adults with epilepsy. Their concerns of living were evaluated by the two ways. Firstly, the patients were given a blank sheet of paper and asked to list all concerns they had about living with epilepsy, listing their most important concern first. After listing all concerns, the listed concerns were tabulated. Secondly, Epilepsy Foundation of America (EFA) Concerns Index was completed by patients. The total EFA concern score was used as dependent variable for determining the predicting factors of their concerns. Seizure-related variables were obtained from medical chart. Other information was collected from self-completed questionnaires, including 3-item stigma scale, history of discrimination, disclosure management, Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS), and QOLIE-10. Univariate analysis and stepwise linear regression were used to identify variables associated with the total EFA concern score. Results: The patients were 104 men and 74 women, of mean age 37.9 years (range 18-69 years). Thirty one different areas of concerns were listed by patients (range 1-12 per patient). Concerns about craving to get information (22.4%), having seizure (21.1%), and social restrictions (20.4%) were the most frequently listed concerns. Other concerns listed by >15% of patients included, mood/depression (19.1%), taking AED (19.1%), fear of embarrassment (16.4%), Being a burden or worry (16.4%), employment (15.8%), and AED side effects (15.1%). Unpredictability of seizures was most frequently listed as the most important concern by 9.9% of patients, followed by fear of embarrassment (9.2%) and having seizure (9.2%). In stepwise linear regression analyses, six significant predictors for total EFA score were identified: HADS-anxiety (p=.001), degree of discrimination (p=.004), history of seizure-related injury (p=.014), having generalized seizures (p=.046), HADS-depression (p=.019), and onset age (p=.046). Anxiety accounted for 30.9% of the variance in total EFA score, discrimination accounted for 6.2% of the variance, and the remaining four variables accounted for an additional 7.7% of the variance (total explained variance = 44.8%). Conclusions: Diverse areas of concerns were reported in our study. Some concerns were different from those in western researches. They may reflect cultural differences. Anxiety, history of actual discrimination, and seizure-related injury were significantly associated with the degree of concerns in Korean patients with epilepsy.