A Cross-sectional Study to Determine the Factors Affecting the Quality of Life in Patients with Grand Mal Epilepsy

Abstract

Introduction: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological condition that affects various domains of life apart from causing physical dysfunction. It is associated with various cognitive and psycho- social complications that can adversely affect the Quality of Life (QoL). Aim: To study the socio-demographic and clinical factors affecting QoL in Patients With Epilepsy (PWE). Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care centre in northern India on patients with Grand Mal Epilepsy. Total 60 PWE were assessed for psychiatric co-morbidity using Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview version 6.0 and were divided into two groups, Group I and Group II, based on absence and presence of psychiatric co-morbidity, respectively. Self-administered QoL in Epilepsy-31 Scale was then used in both the groups to assess QoL in the study subjects and statistical analysis was done. Normally, distributed quantitative data was analysed using independent t-test for two groups and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test for three or more groups. Results: The mean age of the study population was 27.68±9.51 years. A 55% of the study population were males and 45% of total study population were females. The mean total duration of epilepsy was 7.42±6.98 years. There was significant main effect due to socio-economic status for domains of emotional well-being (F=7.513, p=0.010), energy/fatigue (F=5.625, p=0.021), cognitive functions (F=7.708, p=0.007) and overall score (F=6.876, p=0.011) on QOLIE-31 scale. There was a significant main effect due to total duration of seizure disorder for domains of energy/fatigue (F=2.724, p=0.03) and cognitive functions (F=2.852, p=0.03). The mean scores of PWE with psychiatric co-morbidity were lower than PWE without psychiatric co-morbidity in all the domains of QoL in epilepsy scale and the differences in two groups were statistically significant (p=0.01). Conclusion: The present study showed that QoL in PWE is associated with various socio-demographic and clinical factors beyond seizure control.