Relationship between Demographic, Clinical, Psychosocial Factors and Health-related Quality of Life among Persons with Epilepsy in Zaria Northern Nigeria

Introduction: There is a growing global interest on the effect of epilepsy on the subjective health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of the sufferers. Several demographic, clinical, and psychosocial factors have been attributed as contributory to the poor HRQoL in patients (persons) with epilepsy (PWE).

Aim: This study evaluated the relationship between demographic, clinical and psychosocial characteristics of PWE and their HRQoL.

Study Design: A cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Study carried out at Neurology clinic of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Kaduna State, Nigeria from September 2013 to December 2014.

Methodology: Consecutively presenting PWE on follow-up for at least 1 year, 18 years and above were recruited after obtaining ethical approval and informed consent. Structured questionnaire and the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-Bref) instrument were utilized for the study. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 17 with p-value set at less than 0.05.

Results: The participants were one hundred with median age of 29 years. The factors found to have significant relationship with HRQoL were demographic variables like marital status (F = 3.250, p = 0.025) and monthly income (t = - 2.883; p= 0.005); psychosocial factors like presence of perceived stigma or discrimination (χ2 = 2.427, p = 0.017), presence of depressive symptom in the preceding month (χ2 = 3.164, p = 0.002) and availability of social support (χ2 = 3.328, P = 0.001). There was no significant relationship found between clinical factors and HRQoL of PWE (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: The demographic factors (marital status and monthly income) and psychosocial factors (stigma, depression and social support) had a significant relationship with HRQoL in PWE. There is a need to offer evidence-based and focused care to the sufferers of this illness.