Abstracts

Adolescent perception of physical and social impact of chronic illness was assessed to determine a) is there greater prejudice toward epilepsy than other chronic disease, b) do adolescents with chronic disease have less prejudice towards similarly affected peers with all, or just their specific chronic disease. Cohort study
: Outpatient clinics of a tertiary care pediatric hospital
: Cognitively normal teens aged 13-18 without chronic disease (N=41) and with epilepsy (N=32), asthma (N=38), diabetes (N=21) and migraine (N=17).
: Perceived physical and social impact of 8 chronic diseases (epilepsy, asthma, diabetes, Down[apos]s syndrome, arthritis, migraine, leukemia, HIV infection). Epilepsy was perceived to have more adverse physical impact than all chronic illnesses except Down[apos]s syndrome. The perception was that it more frequently caused mental handicap, injured the afflicted individual and bystanders and led to death. Epilepsy was also perceived to have more negative social impact particularly on behavior, honesty, popularity, adeptness at sports and fun. Significantly more adolescents[apos] expressed reluctance to befriend peers with epilepsy both from their own and their perceived parental perspectives.
Having a chronic disease did not generally alter adolescents[apos] perceptions of peers with chronic disease. However cases with epilepsy ranked this disease to have less social impact than teens with other chronic diseases. Adolescents consider epilepsy to have a greater physical and social impact than most chronic diseases. Educational efforts should focus on the [ldquo]normality[rdquo] of most persons with epilepsy, and emphasize the low risk of injury when proper first aide is followed.