Health-related quality of life in Russian adults with epilepsy: The effect of socio-demographic and clinical factors

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate socio-demographic and clinical factors influencing the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of adult patients with epilepsy in a naturalistic treatment setting in Russia. Methods: The QOLIE-31 questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were completed by 208 patients with a broad clinical spectrum of epilepsy (the mean age was 31.49 +/- 13.20 years and ranged from 18 to 74 years). Results: In Russian adult patients with epilepsy, lower mean QOLIE-31 scores were obtained compared with previously published international data for overall HRQOL, emotional well-being, and cognitive functioning and social functioning subscales (p<0.001). Univariate analysis revealed that duration of epilepsy negatively correlated with all QOLIE-31 subscores (p<0.05), except for emotional well-being (p=0.1). In multivariate regression analysis, BDI depression score was the predictor of overall score and all QOLIE-31 domains, except for emotional well-being. Age could be considered as a predictor of cognitive and social functioning, medical effects, and the total QOLIE-31 score. Seizure frequency was a factor associated with all HRQOL domains, except for medication effects and emotional well-being, whereas gender, education, family status, seizure type, employment, lateralization of epileptic foci, number of antiepileptic drugs, and the reported adverse events did not significantly affect HRQOL. Conclusion: The present study has revealed that longer duration of epilepsy, older age, higher seizure frequency, and depression are the potential predictors of worse HRQOL in adult Russian patients with epilepsy. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.