Demographic and Clinical Correlates of Seizure Frequency: Findings from the Managing Epilepsy Well Network Database

Authors

Martha Sajatovic, Case Western Reserve UniversityFollow
Ashley Bukach, Case Western Reserve UniversityFollow
Curtis Tatsuoka, Case Western Reserve UniversityFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

Martha Sajatovic

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-28-2018

Abstract

Background and Purpose Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disease that represents a tremendous burden on both patients and society in general. Studies have addressed how demographic variables, socioeconomic variables, and psychological comorbidity are related to the quality of life (QOL) of people with epilepsy (PWE). However, there has been less focus on how these factors may differ between patients who exhibit varying degrees of seizure control. This study utilized data from the Managing Epilepsy Well (MEW) Network of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with the aim of elucidating differences in demographic variables, depression, and QOL between adult PWE. Methods Demographic variables, depression, and QOL were compared between PWE who experience clinically relevant differences in seizure occurrence. Results Gender, ethnicity, race, education, income, and relationship status did not differ significantly between the seizure-frequency categories (p>0.05). People with worse seizure control were significantly younger (p=0.039), more depressed (as assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire) (p=0.036), and had lower QOL (as determined using the 10-item Quality of Life in Epilepsy for Adults scale) (p<0.001). Conclusions The present results underscore the importance of early screening, detection, and treatment of depression, since these factors relate to both seizure occurrence and QOL in PWE.

Keywords

depression, epilepsy, quality of life, seizure frequency, self-management

Language

English

Publication Title

Journal of Clinical Neurology Korea

Grant

3U48DP001935-04S3

Rights

© 2018 Korean Neurological Association. This is an open access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Recommended Citation

Chen E, Sajatovic M, Liu H, Bukach A, Tatsuoka C, Welter E, Schmidt SS, Bamps YA, Stoll SC, Spruill TM, Friedman D, Begley CE, Shegog R, Fraser RT, Johnson EK, Jobst BC. Demographic and Clinical Correlates of Seizure Frequency: Findings from the Managing Epilepsy Well Network Database. J Clin Neurol. 2018 Apr;14(2):206-211. doi: 10.3988/jcn.2018.14.2.206. Epub 2018 Feb 28. PMID: 29504297; PMCID: PMC5897204.