Quality of life of adolescents suffering from epilepsy living in the community

Objectives: To examine the quality of life of a population sample of adolescents suffering from epilepsy. Methods: All people aged 10-19 years diagnosed with epilepsy and without comorbid conditions in the Spanish province of Huesca were considered for the study. Quality of life was measured with the Spanish version of the Qolie-AD-48. Results: A total of 66 young people with a mean age of 15 years had active epilepsy and agreed to participate; 30.3% had experienced seizures during the previous year. There were some differences in quality of life according to gender and socioeconomic status. Quality of life decreased with increasing severity of epilepsy (r=-0.63, P<0.01). Medication neurotoxicity was associated with a lower quality of life over and above the effect of severity of the illness (partial r=-0.58, P<0.01). Quality of life was negatively associated with the number of seizures per year (r=-0.64, P<0.01), longer duration of the illness (r=-0.36, P<0.01) and earlier age of onset (r=-0.29, P<0.05). Conclusions: The quality of life of young people with epilepsy in community samples varies according to gender and socioeconomic status, but severity of the epilepsy and side-effects of medication are the main influence. This highlights the importance of optimal control of the seizures with medications with few side-effects.