Health-related quality of life of patients with epilepsy in Turkey

The aim of this study was to measure the health related quality of life (HRQOL) of epilepsy patients and to compare it with that of a healthy control group. The evaluation included the effects of the type of seizure, duration of seizure and medical treatment on the quality of life of the patients. The group studied consisted of 221 participants (121 epilepsy patients and 100 healthy control individuals) who completed a sociodemographic data form and who were administered the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-100) scale. The epilepsy patients had statistically lower physical health, psychological well-being, level of independence and global HRQOL than participants in the control group (p<0.05). The analysis of variance showed that the partial epilepsy subgroup had significantly lower averages for all the quality-of-life subfields except for the social relationship dimension. On regression analysis, being married, having a generalized type of seizure and being treated with fewer medications were all related to higher scores on the HRQOL. Epilepsy is a disease that has neurological, psychiatric and psychosocial dimensions that should be evaluated using a multidisciplinary approach.