Memory and Concentration Difficulties Are Common Among U.S. Adults with Epilepsy
Abstract number :
1.118
Submission category :
16. Epidemiology
Year :
2025
Submission ID :
1040
Source :
www.aesnet.org
Presentation date :
12/6/2025 12:00:00 AM
Published date :
Authors :
Presenting Author: Danielle Wallace, MPH, PhD – Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
Daniel Drane, PhD – Emory University School of Medicine
Rationale: Rationale: People with epilepsy (PWE) often experience cognitive problems, including both attention and memory difficulties, possibly due to epileptiform activity or other disease-related factors. This study investigated whether PWE reported greater concentration and memory complaints compared to people without epilepsy in a large, representative US sample. Exploratory analyses also evaluated whether seizure frequency or sleep problems were related to difficulty remembering among PWE.
Methods: Methods: Self-reported data from adults aged 18 years and older in the 2021-2022 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) cycles were analyzed to test associations between epilepsy diagnosis (n=56,081without epilepsy; n=1,007 with epilepsy) and cognitive and memory complaints (adapted from the Washington Group on Disability Statistics Short Set on Functioning). Analyses also examined results by active (defined as taking epilepsy medication or with 1 or more seizure in the past year) and inactive (defined as not currently taking epilepsy medication and 0 seizures in the past year) epilepsy. Data were analyzed in survey-weighted logistic regression models adjusted for age, sex, education, race and ethnicity, and health insurance coverage, with epilepsy diagnosis as the predictor and presence or absence of difficulty as the outcome. Exploratory analyses among the PWE subgroup examined associations with seizure frequency and sleep measures in survey-weighted logistic regression and Chi-square tests. Results with p< 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Epidemiology