Abstracts

Rationale: For people with epilepsy (PWE), seizure management can be particularly difficult due to the complexity of their condition, social and economic challenges, and cultural norms. Self-management (SM) practices have been shown to improve the quality of life and health of people with chronic diseases like epilepsy by addressing personalized SM learning needs and goals. SM skills promote communication between the PWE and their healthcare providers, seizure and medication management, safety, well-being, and independent living. Methods: PAUSE to Learn Your Epilepsy is being tested at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Managing Epilepsy Well (MEW) Network collaborating center. The PAUSE study evaluates the effect of SM educational resources from Epilepsy.com on improving the lives of adult PWE from underserved populations. The study combines the concept of collaborative care with a tailored SM education approach. PWE from both the clinic and community settings are being enrolled. We are over halfway to our goal in recruiting PWE in the clinic setting (n=60) and have begun enrollment in the community (n=5). Preliminary results from 35 PWE who have completed the SM education intervention are being presented. Pre/post assessments of the impact of the Internet-based SM education program include: epilepsy SM practice (AESMMI-65), self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, personal impact of epilepsy, medication adherence, and quality of life. Differences between mean baseline and post-education scores were assessed using a paired t-test. Results: Following the SM education intervention, there is a significant improvement in overall epilepsy SM practices (p=0.01), primarily driven by improvements in social support, seizure tracking and response, and medication adherence. Women (n=25) report a reduced personal impact of epilepsy after SM education (p=0.04). Men (n=10) report improved self-efficacy after SM education (p=0.02). Conclusions: Among our population of primarily minority and low-income PWE, preliminary findings indicate that this personalized educational program using Epilepsy.com provided through the PAUSE application significantly improves epilepsy SM. Initial gender differences in the adoption and effect of SM on the lives of PWE are observed. Future analyses will have better power to detect smaller effects and the long-term impact of SM education. Given the ease of the PAUSE application in personalizing and delivering SM education, there is a high potential benefit in public health, epilepsy self-management, and quality of care. Funding: PAUSE is a project supported by the Univ. of Illinois Prevention Research Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's MEW Network. The project is administered by the Institute for Health Research and Policy of the University of Illinois at Chicago, under CDC cooperative agreement no. U48-DP005010.