Epilepsy impact a person' life in various aspects: not only physical but also psychological and social. Quality of life in patients with epilepsy may be impaired by seizures, side effects of medication, and psychological problems. Therefore, the
assessement of outcome of epilepsy treatment should be comprehensive to include psychosocial and vocational aspects. The purpose of this study is to develop the appropriate assessment system for the quality of life of epileptic patients, to
deliniate
the functional problems and influencing factors on it, and to establish the community delivery system for effective management of epileptic patients in their community.
We used the translated and revised Quality of Life in Epilepsy-89(QOLiE-89) inventory which is a comprehensive and reliable self-report measure which encompasses 89 questions about physical, mental, and social functioning and well-being. We
evaluated
the test-retest reliability in 20 patients with epilepsy and 20 normal persons. We also evaluated the quality of life in 126 epileptic patients and compared the results with that of 46 normal persons. Furthermore, we analysed the 7 socioeconomic
and
clinical variables of epileptic patients to deliniate the most influencing factors on the epileptic patients. In addition, we inveatigate the community resources in Wanju-kun area to establish the effective community delivery system for early
detection,
proper treatment, and referral of the patients with epilepsy.
Out of 18 dimensions of QOLIE-89K, all dimensions except 'role-limitation-physical' showed high correlation between test and retest scores than control group in epileptic patients, and all dimentions except 'pain' in normal persons. The patients
with
epilepsy marked lower scores than control group in 10 dimentions of QOLIE-89K including 'overall quality of life', 'role limitations-physical, 'work/driving/social functions', 'energy/fatigue, 'emotional well-being', 'attention/concerntration',
'health
discouragement', 'memory', language', and 'social isolation' with statistical significance. The most influencing factors on the quality of life of epileptic patients were duration of education and economic status. The age of patient, age of
seizure
onset, and frequency of seizure were also influenced upon some dimensions of QOLIE-89K.
One hundred and seventeen epileptic patients were investigated at Wanju-kun through community delivery system and it showed 0.14% of pravalence rate in this community, which is lower than expectation.
Further research is required to add more reliability in some dimentions of QOLIE-89K, to define other influencing variables on quality of life, and establish the comprehensive and effective management systems for the patients with epilepsy.
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