Abstracts

Rationale: The aim of this study was to investigate whether a diagnosis of epilepsy has an impact on the patients’ job loss and re-employment and to identify the factors affecting job loss and reemployment during 1-8 years of follow-up of Korean employees with epilepsy.

Methods: This study is a longitudinal design and covers employment status of the entire Korean population. All employees except for the self-employed, who were newly diagnosed with epilepsy (n=13122) during the 2010-2018, were identified and followed every 1 year over 1-8 years to estimate the time taken to job-loss. Among them, 2852 (21.7%) of patients lost their job within the first year after a diagnosis of epilepsy. 2572 patients were identified as the second baseline patients and were followed up to estimate the time taken to re-employment.

Results: It was found that 45.5% of newly diagnosed patients with epilepsy in 2018 were in the lower 25% of the total general population, and 50.9% of patients with prevalent epilepsy in 2018 were found to be in the lower 25% of the total population. It may be speculated that epilepsy occurs in a group with a low income quintile, and often falls into the lower income quintile after the diagnosis of epilepsy. Patients who lost their job during follow up period and within the first year after a diagnosis of epilepsy were were 48.8% and 21.7%, respectively. Among patients who lost their job within the first year after a diagnosis of epilepsy, 46.0% were re-employed during follow-up period. Age, sex, equivalent household income quintiles, type of job, psychiatric or CNS comorbidities, epilepsy severity, were significant predictors of early job loss or delayed re-employment.

Conclusions: The diagnosis of epilepsy affects epilepsy patients’ socioeconomic status including income and employment status. The diagnosis of epilepsy affects patients’ employment status differently according to different factors.

Funding: None