title: A structured, nurse-led intervention program improves quality of life in patients with epilepsy: a randomized, controlled trial.
abstract: We tested the hypothesis that structured epilepsy nursing improves quality of life (QOL). One hundred fourteen adult patients with uncontrolled epilepsy were randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a control group. The intervention group was offered an interactive, 1-day group education program followed by extended nurse follow-up and counseling. The nurse was present at as many outpatient consultations as possible and performed repeated consultations by telephone. All patients completed the QOLIE-89 before randomization and after 2 years. QOL was significantly improved from inclusion to completion of study in the intervention group (P=0.019), mainly in the subitems for Health Discouragement (P=0.01), Medication Effects (P=0.035), and Physical Role Limitations (P=0.05). To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate a significant effect of a structured nurse-led intervention program in QOL of patients with epilepsy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, NTNU, N-7006 Trondheim, Norway. grethe.helde@ntnu.no
authors.forename: Grethe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Helde
authors.forename: Gunnar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bovim
authors.forename: Geir
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bråthen
authors.forename: Eylert
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brodtkorb
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses; D010045:Outpatients; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011788:Quality of Life; D016896:Treatment Outcome