Health‐related Quality of Life of People with Epilepsy Compared with a General Reference Population: A Tunisian Study

Abstract

Summary:Purpose: The goal of the study was to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of persons with epilepsy (PWE) by using the short form survey 36 , to compare it with that of a control group and to detect factors influencing it.Methods: We collected clinical and demographic data and information on health status by using the Arabic translation of the SF-36 questionnaire from two groups: (a) 120 PWE consulting our outpatient clinic during a period of 4 months, and (b) 110 Tunisian citizens, representative of the Tunisian general population, as a control group.Results: The mean age of PWE group was 32.74 years, and 45.5% were men. Idiopathic generalized epilepsies were observed in 44.5% of cases, and symptomatic partial epilepsies, in 30%. The most commonly prescribed drug was sodium valproate (VPA). For the SF-36, PWE had lower scores than the control group for only three subscales: general health perception, mental health, and social functioning. Seizure frequency, time since last seizure, and the antiepileptic drug (AED) side effects were the most important variables influencing the HRQOL among PWE. Seizure-free adults have HRQOL levels comparable to those of the control group. Sociodemographic variables had no influence on the SF-36 subscales.Conclusions: HRQOL is impaired in Tunisian PWE. The influencing factors identified in this study differ from the previously published data. Several possible reasons such as family support and cultural and religious beliefs are proposed to explain these cross-cultural differences. A larger study should be conducted to verify such findings.

Quality of Life and its Determinants in People with Epilepsy in Basrah , Iraq = نوعية الحياة و محدداتها عند المصابين بالصرع في البصرة ، العراق

“…Guekht et al, reported that patients with frequent seizures had low social contact and feelings of stigmatisation. 32 Considerable emphasis has been placed on the 14,18,25 In the present study, no significant association was found between the number of drugs and QOL. However, epileptic patients who were taking one antiepileptic drug had a slightly higher QOL score than those on multiple drugs.…”

“…Such a result is consistent with many previous studies that have been done in Iran, the Arabian Gulf, the Near East, Thailand, Norway, the UK, Russia, and Tunisia. 14,18,[29][30][31][32] The epileptic patients' rather poor QOL may be explained by the disease's chronicity (the mean duration of patients' illness in this study was 10.6 years), a result which was reported by Sillanpää et al, or because most of the epileptic patients in this study (78.4%) had not been seizurefree in the last year. Seizure frequency was described as one of the most relevant determinants of poor QOL.…”

“…25 Seizure frequency was classified according to the number of attacks in the last year: one or more attack per month, fewer than one attack per month, and no attacks in the last year. 4,14 After an informed consent was obtained, cases and controls were interviewed by one of the authors. The study was approved by the Ethics and Research Committee of Basrah Health Directorate.…”

“…family caregiver characteristics and social support). [14][15][16][17][18] QOL is sensitive to distress in several domains of living, and a focus on its determinants can help to narrow down the domains in which interventions can be targeted to improve outcome and quality of care. [19][20][21] Current instruments that measure QOL for people with epilepsy have been developed and tested exclusively in the West; the questionnaires analyse multiple daily functions, which are dependent on culture, ethnicity, and economics.…”

The Impact of Demographic Characteristics on Health-related Quality of Life Profile of Malaysian Epilepsy Population

“…Unsurprisingly, our finding similarly mirrored that of a Georgian study in 115 adult epilepsy out-patients-they had also managed to identify advanced age as a significant predictor coupled with strong correlation to low Overall QoL (Djibuti and Shakarishvili 2003). In South Korea and Tunisia, the significance of old age in relation to low HRQoL was uncovered (Choi-Kwon et al 2003;Mrabet et al 2004).…”