Socio-demographic influences on epilepsy outcomes in an inner-city population

Previous studies show anti-epileptic drug compliance and seizure control in people with epilepsy (PWE) to be lower among low-income groups and African-Americans. We examined how socio-demographic factors influence seizure control in an inner-city population.

The clinic records of 193 PWE were analyzed. Good seizure control was defined as no seizures in the previous year. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to examine the effects of race, age, gender, median household income, medication cost, and insurance status on good seizure control.

There were 69 Caucasians and 124 African-Americans (age 47.8±16.5 years) in the study. African Americans had a significantly lower income than Caucasians (p<0.001); but did not have inferior seizure control (p=0.18). Seizure control was also not affected by gender (p=0.82), AED costs (p=0.06), insurance type (p=0.20), or race-independent household income (p=0.75).

Contrary to prior literature, we find that in our population of PWE there were no significant effects of race or family income on seizure outcomes. Our findings add to the existing literature on socio-demographic disparities in PWE and merit further exploration by other groups.