Socio-demographic influences on epilepsy outcomes in an inner-city population.
OBJECTIVE
Previous studies show anti-epileptic drug compliance and seizure control in people with epilepsy (PWE) to be lower among low-income groups and African-Americans. We examined how socio-demographic factors influence seizure control in an inner-city population.


METHODS
The clinic records of 193 PWE were analyzed. Good seizure control was defined as no seizures in the previous year. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to examine the effects of race, age, gender, median household income, medication cost, and insurance status on good seizure control.


RESULTS
There were 69 Caucasians and 124 African-Americans (age 47.8±16.5 years) in the study. African Americans had a significantly lower income than Caucasians (p<0.001); but did not have inferior seizure control (p=0.18). Seizure control was also not affected by gender (p=0.82), AED costs (p=0.06), insurance type (p=0.20), or race-independent household income (p=0.75).


CONCLUSIONS
Contrary to prior literature, we find that in our population of PWE there were no significant effects of race or family income on seizure outcomes. Our findings add to the existing literature on socio-demographic disparities in PWE and merit further exploration by other groups.
Department of Neurology, Drexel University College of Medicine, 230N Broad ST, MS-308, Philadelphia, PA 19102, USA.
Siddharth
S
Kharkar
Department of Neurology, Drexel University College of Medicine, 230N Broad ST, MS-308, Philadelphia, PA 19102, USA.
Jyoti
J
Pillai
Department of Neurology, Drexel University College of Medicine, 230N Broad ST, MS-308, Philadelphia, PA 19102, USA.
Dustin
D
Rochestie
Department of Neurology, Drexel University College of Medicine, 230N Broad ST, MS-308, Philadelphia, PA 19102, USA. Electronic address: zulfi.haneef@bcm.edu.
Zulfi
Z
Haneef
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011203:Poverty; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult
D000927:Anticonvulsants
Epidemiology; Epilepsy; Racial disparity; Seizures; Socio-demographic