Abstracts

RATIONALE: Epilepsy is a chronic condition, which is known to have negative effects on the quality of life. We evaluated major variables associated with the quality of life of epileptic patients in Korea.
METHODS: We evaluated the quality of life in Epilepsy (QOLIE) of 210 epileptic adult patients at Keimyung University Epilepsy Center. The QOLIE-31 questionnaires for self-assessment of quality of life were used for this assessment. We have translated and validated the QOL assessment tools (Cramer et al, 1998) to Korean. Seven of the most serious QOLIE concerns were as follows: seizure worry, overall QOL, emotional well-being, energy and fatigue, cognitive function, social function, medication effects, and an overall health questionnaire.The scoring system requires conversion from raw, preceded numeric values to scores of 0-100 points, with higher scores reflecting better QOL. We assessed the correlation between QOLIE concerns and clinical parameters such as: age, gender, marital status, education level, age at seizure onset, duration of illness, and number of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs).
RESULTS: The mean subscores of QOLIE-31 items were 54.9 (medication effects), 52.0 (energy-fatigue), 50.1 (overall QOL), 42.4 (seizure worry), 41.5 (emotional well-being), 36.3 (social function), and 30.9 (cognitive function). The mean of overall health was 59.4. The items of QOLIE did not show any significant correlation with age at seizure onset or duration of illness. However, education level, economic status, number of AEDs, and frequency of seizures could be related with QOLIE.
CONCLUSIONS: We identified several risk factors for poor QOL in patients with epilepsy. We have explored different factors including cultural influences that may explain these findings. These results provide information about patients with epilepsy that may be helpful in their emotional support, as well as drug treatment.