Impact of epilepsy on QOL in a Portuguese population: exploratory study.
OBJECTIVE
To develop an outcome measure of QOL (quality of life) for the Portuguese population; describe QOL in epileptics; analyse how QOL is affected by epilepsy and analyse how QOL is affected by patients' characteristics.


METHODS
Study of a consecutive sample of 92 epileptics from an outpatient clinic, men and women, aged 15-65, having the basic education level. Firm diagnosis of epilepsy (with or without seizures) without other illness. A questionnaire based on ESI-55 and Health Insurance Experiment Short-Forms was used. Principal component analysis (orthogonal varimax) showed a solution explaining 55.6 of total variance. After the inspection, the 33 items were grouped into 5 sub-scales (dimensions).


RESULTS
Results showed that QOL was poor for people with partial seizures. The best scores were found on patients now free from seizures.


CONCLUSIONS
The QOL measure is sensitive to cultural differences, demographic and disease variables which could explain the results found.
Ribeiro
J L
JL
Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação--Universidade do Porto, Portugal.
Mendonça
D
D
Martins da Silva
A
A
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011174:Portugal; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012640:Seizures / Q000523:psychology; D012917:Social Adjustment; D014175:Translating