title: Marital adjustment for patients with epilepsy in China.
abstract: Marriage is a major source of social support and a predictor of health; however, marriages that involve people with epilepsy are more likely to fail. To explore this issue in China, we compared the marital adjustment of patients with epilepsy to control subjects using the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS). A total of 136 married persons with epilepsy and 145 healthy control subjects were recruited. The DAS score was significantly lower in people with active epilepsy than in the controls (102.0±17.8 vs. 109.2±15.8, p<0.001). A hierarchical regression showed that depression and social support satisfaction were significant predictors for DAS. Psychosocial variables accounted for 24.0% of the variance in DAS after control for demographic and seizure-related factors in patients with active epilepsy. The result suggests that people with active epilepsy in our sample encountered more marital discord than controls. Treatment to control mood disorder and support intervention might be important for their marital adjustment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jiani
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yaoying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Josemir W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Sander
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012944:Social Support; D055815:Young Adult