Epilepsy is more than seizures and includes a high risk of comorbidities and psychological disorders, leading to poor quality of life (QOL). Earlier studies have showed a sedentary lifestyle in people with epilepsy (PWE), which could contribute to poorer health and psychological problems. The purpose of the present study was to compare habits of physical activity (PA), aerobic capacity, and QOL between PWE and healthy controls in order to identify the necessity of intervention of habits and information on physical exercise (PE) and to better understand the importance of PE for PWE. The study included 38 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and 20 normal controls. Both groups answered the WHOQOL-Bref, which assesses the level of QOL, and IPAQ to evaluate the level of PA. In addition, they were submitted to a treadmill maximal cardiopulmonary effort test to identify physical capacity. The continuous variables were compared between groups by t-test and a general linear model, and the frequencies were compared by Chi-Square test through SPSS software. There was no difference in the level of PA between groups by questionnaire evaluation. However, there were significant differences in overall QOL, physical health, and level of PA in relation to work and physical capacity between groups; controls demonstrated better scores than PWE. Controls presented better physical capacity than PWE by cardiopulmonary effort test. According to intra-group analyses, PWE who were physically active had better QOL than inactive PWE. The study concluded that questionnaires about PE may not be the best instrument of evaluation, as demonstrated by the discrepancy of results compared to the validated objective cardiopulmonary evaluation of level of PA and physical capacity in this study.

RESUMOIntrodução: Existem evidências científicas que mostram a contribuição da Atividade física (AF) para a qualidade de vida de diferentes indivíduos e populações, no entanto ainda existem controvérsias quanto aos benefícios da AF para pacientes com epilepsia. Neste estudo investigamos a relação entre a prática de atividade física e a qualidade de vida de pacientes com epilepsia. Metodologia: Aplicamos questionário de nível de AF, (IPAQ) e de QV, QOLIE-31 a 20 indivíduos com epilepsia de lobo temporal mesial e dividimos os entrevistados em grupo A, fisicamente ativo e grupo C, inativo. Utilizamos o software SYSTAT9™ com teste de Mann-Whitney U para analisar diferenças de variáveis contínuas entre grupos e teste exato de Fisher para analisar distribuição de frequências. Realizamos correlações de Pearson entre variáveis contínuas. O nível de significância adotado foi de p<0,05. Resultados: Observamos melhor qualidade de vida para os pacientes que praticavam atividade física moderada com maior frequência. Encontramos uma tendência para melhor qualidade de vida para pacientes que trabalham em comparação aos que não trabalham. Uma pior qualidade de vida estava associada ao medo de ter crises e maior idade dos pacientes. Conclusão: Nossos resultados juntamente com outras evidências da literatura sugerem que pessoas com epilepsia que apresentam uma vida ativa, ao contrário do que ainda muitos acreditam, apresentam melhor qualidade de vida. Desta forma acreditamos que além dos benefícios físicos e emocionais que a AF proporciona para qualquer grupo de pessoas, programas de AF planejado podem constituir uma forma alternativa de melhorar a qualidade de vida de pessoas com epilepsia.Unitermos: epilepsia do lobo temporal; qualidade de vida; atividade física. ABSTRACT Relationship between quality of life and physical activity of patients with epilepsyIntroduction: There is scientific evidence showing the contribution of physical activity (PA) for the quality of life of different individuals and populations, however there is still controversy about the benefits of PA for patients with epilepsy. In this study we investigated the relationship between PA and quality of life of patients with epilepsy. Methods: We applied questionnaires for measuring PA, (IPAQ) and Quality of Life, QOLIE-31, to 20 individuals with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and divided the respondents in group A (active) and group C (inactive). We uses the SYSTAT9™ software with the Mann-Whitney U test to analyze differences in continuous variables between groups and Fisher's exact test to analyze the distribution of frequencies. We performed Pearson correlations between continuous variables. The level of significance was set to p<0.05. Results: We observed better quality of life for patients who used to practice moderate physical activity more frequently. We identified a trend towards better quality of life for patients who work, compared to those who do not work. Worse quality of life was associated with fear of having seizures and older age. Conclusion: Our ...

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