H - 34 Impact of Education, Mood and Anxiety on Self-Management and Self-Efficacy in Spanish-Speaking People with Epilepsy.

Abstract

Explore relationships between the years of education, mood, and anxiety with self-efficacy and self-management in Spanish-speaking people with epilepsy (PWE). Higher education was hypothesized to be associated with higher Epilepsy Self-Efficacy Scale (ESE) and Epilepsy Self-Management (ESM) scores, while lower mood and anxiety may be linked to lower ESE and ESM scores. Spanish-speaking PWE completed the ESE, ESM, PHQ-9 andGAD-7. Participants were primarily monolingual, immigrant patients at a public, safety-net hospital in Dallas, TX enrolled in a self-management intervention study, PACES in Español. Participants (n = 19, >18years-old) had an average age (M = 41.6years, SD = 13.1) and reported years of education (M = 9.79, SD = 3.3). Participants were mostly male (73.7%) and born in Mexico (83.9%). Pearson and Spearman correlations were run for comparisons, as appropriate, after determining variable normality of distribution. Education was negatively correlated to GAD-7 (M = 5.1, SD = 4.3), r(17) = -0.48, p = 0.04. ESM was negatively correlated to PHQ-9 (M = 5.8, SD = 4.8), r(17) = -0.46, p = 0.04. Predictable significant correlations between PHQ and GAD; r(17) = 0.71, p = 0.00, and the ESE and ESM r(17) = 632, p = 0.004 were observed. Moderate to Severe levels of depression (21.1%) and anxiety (15.8%) were observed. Education was not related to ESE or ESM; however, higher education was associated with lower anxiety severity. Higher ESM was associated with lower depression symptoms. While initial results are limited by the sample size, further exploration between level of education, mood, and anxiety and PWE's and their epilepsy self-management.