The relationship between health-related quality of life and disability in patient with controlled epilepsy

OBJECTIVE: The aims this study were to assess the impact of epilepsy on the health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) of patients and on patterns of disability and to describe the relationship between disability and HRQoL in adult patients with controlled epilepsy. DESIGN: Disability was measured with the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule, second version (WHO-DAS II), whereas HRQoL was measured with the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). The relationships between SF-36 and WHO-DAS II were evaluated with Pearson correlation. The impact of epilepsy on disability and HRQoL was assessed by comparing WHO-DAS II and SF-36 scores with the Italian normative values and by evaluating different disability and HRQoL profiles in patients self-reporting change in health state against those reporting no change. RESULTS: Few differences between patients' and normative scores were observed. In particular, patients with a stable health state reported higher HRQoL and lower disability status, compared with those reporting an improvement or a decline in health state. The relationships between WHO-DAS II and SF-36 were significant but were generally low or moderate. CONCLUSIONS: Disability and HRQoL scores of patients with controlled epilepsy were not significantly different compared with those of the general population, in particular among stable patients. Measures of HRQoL and disability evaluate different psychosocial aspects of epilepsy and can be used jointly to evaluate outcomes.