Quality of Life in Patients with Neurocysticercosis in Mexico

Abstract

Abstract. The objective of this study was to compare quality of life measures in patients with neurocysticercosis (NCC) to those of a matched control group. The NCC outpatients and their controls were recruited from two neurology referral hospitals in Mexico City, Mexico during [2007][2008]. The quality of life of 224 NCC patients was compared with 224 agesex-hospital-day matched controls using the short form 12 v2 (SF-12 v2) quality of life survey. Medical chart reviews were also conducted for the NCC outpatients to evaluate presenting clinical manifestations. Compared with the controls, NCC patients had a significantly lower score for each of the eight domains of health evaluated and significantly lower Physical and Mental Component Summary scores. Chart reviews indicated that hydrocephalus (48%), severe headaches (47%), and epilepsy (31%) were the most common clinical manifestations in these NCC outpatients. headaches for more than three continuous days were eligible for participation in the study. All NCC cases with the symptoms mentioned previously and who presented themselves for an outpatient appointment to the INNN from July 17, 2007 to December 7, 2007 or to the HE-IMSS from June 2, 2008 to August 12, 2008 were asked for their consent to participate in the study. All patients who provided written consent were interviewed by a trained member of the research team (i.e., a Mexican intern, resident, or social worker) at the time of their appointment.An individual who accompanied a non-NCC outpatient to either the INNN or the HE-IMSS was considered as a possible control. Eligibility for acting as a control was further narrowed by selecting only individuals who accompanied a non-related patient to reduce the potential impact of living with a person suffering from a neurological disease on quality of life. Controls were paired with an NCC patient seen at the same hospital on the same day by sex and age (±5 years) to reduce any possible confounding effect from these variables. This 1:1 matched control group was selected and interviewed in the hospital's waiting area by a member of the research team after obtaining written consent .Quality of life. The SF-12 v2 survey (Mexican Spanish version) was completed by all consenting participants. Twelve questions were used to assess eight domains of health in the survey: physical functioning, role physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role emotional, and mental health. All domains were checked for missing data for each patient-control pair. If more than four health domains were missing for any case or control, that case/control pair was not included in the analysis. Data were rescored for uniformity (i.e., positive health responses received higher scores) according to Quality Metric guidelines.15 Raw scores were then transformed to a 0-100 scale in accordance with standard procedures.15 This transformation converts the lowest and highest possible scores to zero and 100, with scores between these values representing the percentage of the t...

Cognitive Changes and Quality of Life in Neurocysticercosis: A Longitudinal Study

“…A recent cross-sectional study of QoL in patients with NCC from Mexico reported deficits in both mental and physical domains compared with controls [24]. Other neurological conditions that have demonstrated impairments in quality of life in Latin America include head trauma [25] and spinal cord injury [26].…”

Estimating the Non-Monetary Burden of Neurocysticercosis in Mexico

“…The research presented here provides the first estimate of DALYs associated with NCC in Mexico, incorporating two common clinical manifestations of patients with NCC, epilepsy and severe chronic headaches [12].…”

Mapping the residual incidence of taeniasis and cysticercosis in Colombia, 2009–2013, using geographical information systems: Implications for public health and travel medicine

“…In Asia, there is a similar scenario to Latin America, where most of the cases of cysticercosis are original from the region, except in some countries like Japan and Oman where patients with cysticercosis, in contrast, have a history of traveling to endemic regions [48]. However, intensive work, research and improvement of socioeconomic conditions have demonstrated reduction of taeniasis and NCC, as has been reported in Mexico [5–7,21,41,43–45]. …”

“…A study conducted at Mexico reported that the annual per patient direct cost charged to the social security administration was US$3,109 for patients with a history of hospitalization; also, it reported an annual indirect cost associated to productivity losses and transportation costs for the 224 patients of US$ 17,172 based on the opportunity cost method, US$ 41,841 based on the minimum wage approach, and US$ 44,406 based on the house cleaning approach [44]. In the same way, assessment of life quality in patients with NCC indicates negative changes in physical, mental, and social health [45]. …”

“…It is important to point the relevance of regional costumes, hygienic and alimentary practices that are significant risk factors related to the persistence and transmission of the pathology [45–53]. Therefore veterinary controls and pig-meat inspection are interventions needed especially in places where meat is just for local consumption [18].…”