Abstracts

Rationale: Health related quality of life (HRQOL) among patients with epilepsy (PWE) are related to seizure characteristics and other psychosocial factors. We conducted this study to evaluate the HRQOL and the variables associated with HRQOL among PWE of different epileptogenic foci. Methods: A total of 548 patients at the epilepsy clinic of Taipei Veterans General Hospital who completed the inventory of Taiwanese Quality-of-Life-in-epilepsy Scale 89 (QOLIE-89) and background information were enrolled for analysis. The patients were classified according to the foci of seizure onset into (1) temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) (2) extratemporal lobe epilepsy (3) idiopathic generalized (IGE) and (4) multifocal epilepsy. In the group of TLE, patients were further divided to two groups: (1) after anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) and (2) medical treatment. Multiple linear regression was used to determine variables associated with QOLIE-89 and One-way and two-way ANOVA were used in the analysis of group difference in QOLIE-89. Results: Among the 548 patients, 291 (53.1%) had TLE, (142 had undergone ATL), 77 (14.1%) had extratemporal lobe epilepsy, 28 (5.1%) had IGE and 31 (5.7%) had multifocal epilepsy. There were 121(22.1%) patients who can not be classified. For the whole group, educational attainment, side effect and numbers of antiepileptic drugs, unemployment, seizure control, perception of stigma, sleep disturbance and worry of inheritability accounted for 27.8% of the variance for total scores of QOLIE-89. HRQOL were worst in patients with multifocal epilepsy in total scores, physical health and cognition factors (p=0.04, 0.04 and <0.001 respectively). However, the difference became insignificant after adjusted by seizure control. No difference was noted between patients of ATL and TLE with medical treatment after controlling the factor of seizure control. Conclusions: The seizure control, side effect and numbers of AEDs were significant seizure characteristic factors for QOLIE-89 in PWE. In this study, onset of seizure foci was not an independent variable for HRQOL in PWE. In addition, worry of inheritability, perception of stigma and sleep disturbance were not uncommon in our patients and they were independently related to HRQOL in PWE.