Abstracts

Rationale: To evaluate the quality of life in patients 65 years or older with active epilepsy in two hospitals in Bogot , Colombia.Methods: The clinical charts including the electroencephalogram and diagnostic images of all patients were reviewed. Then the QOLIE-31 and version 10 of Minimental Test Score were used to establish the patient's cognitive level. Percentages and simple frequency distribution were used to describe qualitative variables. Arithmetic means range and standard deviations for quantitative demographic variables were analyzed. The normality assumption of the subscales of QOLIE-31 with the Shapiro-Wilk test with a p ? 0.05 was assessed. The global quality of life and subscales were correlated with ordinal and numeric variables using the nonparametric correlation coefficient of Spearman and differences between the medians of the nominal qualitative variables were evaluated with the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests. To establish the variables that explained the quality of life, we used an ordinal regression model. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of both hospitals.Results: We studied 120 patients of both sexes with an average age of 72.4 6.2 (65 - 90) years. Epilepsy began at 62 16.9 years but 44% had seizures under 65. Only 4% of patients were free of seizures during the past two years. 86% had focal seizures in which the cause was secondary to cerebral vascular disease. Most of the patients (62.5%) were on monotherapy with Phenytoin. In evaluating the quality of life, a global average of 52.4/100 15.9 (27 -87) was found. High number of seizures, low scores of the Mini-mental test, low educational level, and the abnormality on cerebral MRI were also associated with poor quality of life. Other variables such as sex, type of housing, work, type of seizures, availability of the drugs, and treatment with Phenytoin influenced QOLIE subscales, but not the overall assessment.Conclusions: Patients with epilepsy over 65 years of age have a poor quality of life. Several studies have reported that epileptic seizures, etiology and drug treatment have a negative impact in the quality of life of older epileptic patients. We have found however, that in addition to these factors, socioeconomic conditions are also very important in determining the quality of life in our patients.