title: Determinants of quality of life among people with epilepsy attending a secondary care rural hospital in south India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Epilepsy is associated with profound physical, psychological, and social consequences.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the quality of life (QOL) among people with epilepsy attending the outpatient department of a secondary care hospital and to determine the various social and demographic factors affecting it.
  
  
  METHODS
  The QOL of 100 people with epilepsy attending the outpatient department of a community-based secondary care hospital was assessed using the WHOQOL-BREF (WHOQOL: World Health Organization QOL) questionnaire. Univariate analysis and logistic regression was done to determine the factors associated with poor QOL.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The QOL scores for all the domains ranged between 15.7 and 74.55 with a mean score of 51.49 [standard deviation (SD) 12.3]. The mean scores in the physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains were 55.7, 37.92, 57.75, and 50.56, respectively. Age more than 30 years [odds ratio (OR): 4.33, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.73-10.82], female gender (OR: 2.90, 95% CI: 1.16-7.28), and currently married (OR: 3.82, 95% CI: 1.21-12.11) were the factors significantly associated with lower QOL scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The QOL among people with epilepsy was lower in the psychological domain. Age more than 30 years, female gender, and being married were identified as the factors associated with poor QOL scores among people with seizure disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ashwin
authors.forename: Ps
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rakesh
authors.forename: Ruby A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Pricilla
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Manjunath
authors.forename: Ks
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jacob
authors.forename: Jasmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prasad
keywords: Quality of life; epilepsy; world health organization quality of life-BREF