Abstracts

Rationale: Epilepsy is a public health problem in Latin America, and is considered to be a debilitating illness with impaired quality of life (QoL). This study was conducted with the aim to evaluate QoL in a cohort of individuals with epilepsy attending outpatient clinics at the Instituto de Ciencias Neurologicas (INCN) in Lima, Peru. Methods: We included consecutively patients seen in the outpatient epilepsy clinics at the INCN, between January and December of 2007. All patients were administered the Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory-31, already validated in Spanish. Results: Most of the patients in this cohort were males (68, 57%), most of them were between 18 and 30 years of age (63%), with a 10 year history of epilepsy (63%), diagnosed with symptomatic epilepsy (76%), and with frequent seizures (1 per week to 1 per month, 38%). Most patients (62%) were on monotherapy. The mean score was 50.08 (48 in the female and 52 in the male group). The lowest scores were related to concern about seizures (2.8) and effects of pharmacological treatment (1.98). These scores were particularly seen in those with long history of epilepsy (longer than 10 years). Event though, in younger patients the lowest scores were seen in regards to concern about seizures and emotional behavior, the older patients scored lower in social relationships and emotional behavior. In terms of work, those without family support scored lower than those with it, and the areas that were most affected were the global quality of life, effects of pharmacotherapy, and concerns about seizures. Furthermore, lowest scores were seen in patients with symptomatic epilepsy and with frequent seizures (more than one seizure per week). The validity of the QoLIE-31 was found to be high (Cronbach’s alpha=0.74). Conclusions: This preliminary study reveals a low QoL in Peruvian patients attending outpatient clinics at the INCN in Lima. The most compromised areas are the concern for seizures as well as the effects of pharmacological treatment. The two main causes for these findings appeared to be high seizure frequency and diagnosis of symptomatic epilepsy.