Abstracts

Rationale: To assess the perceived stress in persons with epilepsy (PWE) compared with persons without epilepsy in a large Danish cohort. Methods: We investigated the association between perceived stress and epilepsy by following a population based cohort of 118,410 participants from the Danish National Health Survey 2010. Information on perceived stress and lifestyle was obtained from the survey. The cohort was accurately linked at the individual level to nationwide health registers through the unique 10-digit Danish personal identification number, which is assigned to all Danish citizens upon birth or immigration. Persons with epilepsy were identified from the Danish National Hospital Register (ICD-10: G40 from 1995-2010) and from the Danish Prescription Register (ATC: N03 or N05BA09 from 1995-2010). The outcomes of the perceived stress scale were stratified by psychiatric comorbidity. Results: Out of 228,278 Invited, 118,410 respondents (52%) provided responses with a perceived stress scale score (54,968 men and 63,442 women).  The perceived stress scale score was higher in PWE compared to persons without epilepsy (p < 0.01). The perceived stress scale score was higher in women than in men (p < 0.01). The highest perceived stress scale score was identified in PWE and psychiatric disorders. Conclusions: In this large national survey, PWE had a higher degree of perceived stress compared with persons without epilepsy. The perceived stress scale score was higher in women than in men. The degree of perceived stress was particularly high in PWE who had comorbid psychiatric disease. Funding: This work was supported by unrestricted grants from the Danish Epilepsy Association and the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF16OC0019126).