Abstract
BACKGROUND: Epilepsy is a chronic and heterogeneous neurological disorder that impairs the quality of life (QOL) of sufferers and affects their mental health in many aspects. Few studies have been conducted in the Middle East, especially in Lebanon, on the QOL of patients with epilepsy. The aim of our study is to assess the burden of epilepsy on the life of adult patients in Lebanon and measure the impact of sociodemographic and clinical factors on the QOL. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 47 patients from several neurology clinics were included in our study and asked to fill out a questionnaire including the sociodemographic variables and epilepsy-related factors. We used the Quality of Life in Epilepsy Scale-31 (QOLIE-31), which is a 31-question form covering seven attributes of the QOL; overall QOL, emotional wellbeing, social functioning, cognition, energy, seizure worry and medication effects, to assess the QOL of adult patients with epilepsy. Analysis was conducted using SPSS program version 23. RESULTS: The mean age of our sample was 37.54 years, 53.2% of which were males. The majority were unemployed, educated, and belonging to the medium socioeconomic level. The highest subscale score was for the social functioning subscale with a mean of 74.49±25.89 and the lowest subscale score was for seizure worry with a mean of 55.81±27.14. Employment status, nationality, and socioeconomic level were shown to be associated with the QOL scores. There were no correlations between the clinical factors and the QOL scores. CONCLUSION: Sociodemographic factors, namely Lebanese nationality, employment status, and socioeconomic level, were associated with better QOL, reflected by the significant associations between the following parameters and the QOL scores (p-value<0.05), highlighting the positive influence of social support on the outcome of the disease. However, epilepsy-related clinical features did not show any correlation with the QOL and its subscales.