일부 간질환자에서 삶의 질과 관련된 요인

Abstract

Epilepsy is a chronic condition, which is known to have negative effects on an individual's quality of life. We evaluated major variables associated with the quality of life of epileptics in Korea. We evaluated the quality of life in epilepsy (QOLIE-31) of 202 epileptic adults at Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center. Eight of the most serious QOLIE concerns were as follows: seizure worry, overall QOL, emotional well-being, energy and fatigue, cognitive functioning, medication effects, social functioning, and overall health. We assessed the correlation between QOLIE concerns and the clinical parameters such as age, gender, marital status, duration of education, seizure onset, duration of illness, number of antiepileptic drugs, etc. The mean subscores of QOLIE-31 items were 54.9 (medication effects), 52.0 (energy-fatigue), 50.1 (overall QOL), 42.4 (seizure worry), 41.5 (emotional well-being), 36.3 (social functioning), and 30.9 (cognitive functioning). We found significant differences in many aspects of quality of life with respect to age (overall QOL and energy-fatigue), gender (seizure worry, emotional well-being, medication effects and overall health), education (cognitive functioning and social functioning), economic status (overall QOL, emotional wellbeing and overall health), number of antiepileptic drugs (emotional well-being) and frequency of seizure (energy-fatigue). We identified several related factors for poor QOL outcomes in patients with epilepsy. These results provide informations about patients with epilepsy that may help with their emotional support, as well as drug treatment.