Abstract
ObjectiveOur objectives were: to assess the QOL of Brazilian adolescents with epilepsy with a specific QOL assessment tool; to compare the adolescents with epilepsy and healthy adolescents using a generic QOL assessment tool; to correlate the 2 different QOL assessment tools (the generic and the epilepsy-specific); and to correlate QOL scores of the adolescents with epilepsy obtained by both tools with physical, psychological and social variables of the disease.MethodsFifty subjects (case group) attending the outpatient clinic of epilepsy of the Clinics Hospital of UNICAMP, Campinas-SP, answered the Brazilian version of the QOL inventory for adolescents with epilepsy - QOLIE-AD-48 and the QOL Questionnaire - WHOQOL – BREF – Portuguese version. Fifty-one subjects (control group) from public schools in Campinas-SP answered only the WHOQOL-BREF.ResultsThe results showed that adolescents with epilepsy presented a good score of QOL in both tools; overall scores for both groups with WHOQOL-BREF were good, but a statistically significant difference was seen with regards to the Psychological domain of the WHOQOL-BREF favoring the control group. Significant correlations between QOLIE-AD-48 Total and WHOQOL domains were found. Adolescents that were considered seizure-free (P = 0.001), had good perception of seizure control (P = 0.012) and had not had occurrence of seizures in public places (P = 0.001) presented better QOL scores.ConclusionsBrazilian adolescents with epilepsy may present good QOL scores when they themselves consider the disease as under control; physical, social and especially psychological variables associated to the disease may play an important role in these results. As a generic QOL tool, WHOQOL-BREF was sufficient to allow for a comparison between chronic disease bearers and healthy adolescents and showed that the gap in QOL between both populations is not as extensive as once was thought, probably due to better support and adaptation to the disease.
Highlights
Questions related to the subjective well-being began to gain importance when the increase in life expectancy led to an increase in the incidence of chronic diseases, showing the necessity of evaluating the impact of these conditions in the routine of the patients [1]
For the other physical variables associated with epilepsy, the results showed no significant correlations between drug treatment and WHOQOL domains (Physical P = 0.878; Psychological P = 0.929; Social P = 0.693; Environmental P = 0.673) and QOLIE-AD-48-Total (P = 0.079)
Our present study showed that Brazilian adolescents with epilepsy present a relatively good Quality of Life (QOL) score (68.73615.09) when assessed by a population-specific tool (QOLIE-AD-48)
Summary
Questions related to the subjective well-being began to gain importance when the increase in life expectancy led to an increase in the incidence of chronic diseases, showing the necessity of evaluating the impact of these conditions in the routine of the patients [1]. In this context, Quality of Life (QOL) is considered an important outcome measure for health care [2]. The increase in the number of studies in this field demonstrates the importance of the patient’s perspective in the evaluation of his own well-being – in different dimensions of the disease process and in the relationship with the environment -, given that biometric measurements are insufficient to assess the impact of the disease [6]
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