Abstracts

Quality of life is lower in people with epilepsy than in the general population. Its association with seizures, adverse drug effects and mood disorders has been documented. Despite a high level of somatic comorbidity in epilepsy, its contribution to Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) has not been studied. The objective of this study is to asses the impact of comorbid chronic conditions (eg., heart diseases, diabetes, arthritis and migraine) on HRQOL in people with epilepsy in the general population., Data were collected as part of the 19996-1997 Canadian Community Health Survey. HRQOL was assessed using the Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI-3). The HUI3 maps any one of the vectors of eight health attribute levels into a summary health value ranging between -0.36 and 1.0. The most preferred health level (perfect health) is rated as 1.0 and death is rated 0.0, while negative scores reflect health states considered worse than death. Respondents (n=129921) were classified based on the presence or absence of epilepsy, diabetes, migraine, arthritis, and possible combinations., The overall HUI-3 score for the general population (n=129921) was 0.86, and it was significantly higher than that of the studied chronic conditions (p[lt] 0.05). The mean HUI-3 score was 0.70 (CI[sub]95[/sub] 0.67-0.73) in persons with epilepsy (n =803), 0.74 (CI[sub]95[/sub] 0.73-0.75) in diabetes (n=6180), 0.79 (CI[sub]95[/sub] 0.78-0.80) in migraine (n=11915), 0.72 (CI[sub]95[/sub] 0.71-0.73) in arthritis (n=23908) and 0.71 (CI[sub]95[/sub] 0.70-0.72) in heart disease (n=7725). The HUI-3 score was 0.45 (CI[sub]95[/sub] 0.31-0.59) in persons with epilepsy and diabetes (n=46), 0.59 (CI[sub]95[/sub] 0.49-0.69) in epilepsy and heart disease (n=87), 0.60 (CI[sub]95[/sub] 0.52-0.68) in epilepsy and migraine (n=146), and 0.56 (CI[sub]95[/sub] 0.49-0.63) in epilepsy and arthritis (n=199). All were significantly lower than in the overall epilepsy population., In addition to the effect of epilepsy on quality of life, the presence of common, chronic somatic comorbid conditions has a major impact on the quality of life of persons with epilepsy. This is important when reporting HRQOL of patients with epilepsy, and when assessing the impact of epilepsy therapies on HRQOL.,