Disease characteristics and psychosocial factors: explaining the expression of quality of life in childhood epilepsy.
OBJECTIVE
To explore, identify and understand the contribution that biomedical and psychosocial factors make to the assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQL) of children and youth with epilepsy using the CHEQOL-25.


METHODS
We identified and measured variables that may influence HRQL; grouped the variables into four conceptual categories; and used simple and hierarchical linear regressions to model CHEQOL-25 as a function of these variable groupings. Participants were 8-15year olds with epilepsy and their parents.


RESULTS
131 child and parent pairs participated. Overall, the unique variances associated with the biomedical and psychosocial variables are R(2)=0.22 and 0.29, respectively, for child self-reported HRQL and R(2)=0.11 and 0.13, respectively, for parent-proxy report.


CONCLUSIONS
This study increases our understanding of factors that contribute to the expression of HRQL in this population. These results should be interpreted with caution due to the limited sample size and large number of variables.
Ronen
Gabriel M
GM
Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. roneng@mcmaster.ca
Streiner
David L
DL
Verhey
Leonard H
LH
Lach
Lucyna
L
Boyle
Michael H
MH
Cunningham
Charles E
CE
Rosenbaum
Peter L
PL
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires