Abstract
Background Patients with epilepsy are at an increased risk of poor quality of life. Purpose We aimed at assessing the quality of life and its determinants among epileptic patients at University of Gondar Referral Hospital (UoGRH), Ethiopia. Methods Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted on epileptic patients on follow up at UoGRH from January 15 to April 15, 2017. Information including socio-demographic profile and diagnosis was extracted from medical records and patients. Quality Of Life In Epilepsy-10 (QOLIE-10) tool was used to measure the quality of life. Independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance were used to look for factors associated with quality of life. The level of statistical significance was declared at P-value ≤ 0.05. Results A total of 354 patients were included in the study and mean age was 29.1 ± 11.7 years. The mean QOLIE-10 score was 19.85. One hundred ninety-four (54.8%) of participants had a good quality of life. Being illiterate, unemployment, and presence of co-morbid medical condition were associated with poorer quality of life. Conclusion Nearly half of the participants had a poor quality of life. Patients with co-morbidity, illiteracy, and unemployment should be given special emphasis in order to improve their quality of life.
Highlights
Introduction e International League AgainstEpilepsy (ILAE) defines epilepsy as a disease of the brain defined by any of the following conditions: (i) At least two unprovoked seizures occurring > 24 h apart; (ii) one unprovoked seizure and a probability of further seizures similar to the general recurrence risk a er two unprovoked seizures, occurring over the 10 years; or (iii) diagnosis of an epilepsy syndrome [1].Epilepsy affects people of any age, gender, ethnicity, and social background, irrespective of geographic location
Discussion e mean QOLIE-10 score in this study was 19.86 (75.3%). is result is in line with the study in Bangalore, India, which reported a mean quality of life of 74.9% [15]
Different literatures suggested that patients receiving two or more antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) had poor quality of life as compared to patients on monotherapy [14, 21,22,23,24]
Summary
Epilepsy affects people of any age, gender, ethnicity, and social background, irrespective of geographic location. It is the most common chronic serious neurologic disease [2]. About 10% of the whole world population living a normal life span can expect to have at least one epileptic seizure. Patients with epilepsy are at an increased risk of poor quality of life. We aimed at assessing the quality of life and its determinants among epileptic patients at University of Gondar Referral Hospital (UoGRH), Ethiopia. Unemployment, and presence of co-morbid medical condition were associated with poorer quality of life. Illiteracy, and unemployment should be given special emphasis in order to improve their quality of life
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
