Social anxiety is associated with poor quality of life in adults with epilepsy in Northeast China: A cross-sectional study

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the factors influencing the level of social anxiety in patients with epilepsy (PWE) in Northeast China. We also identified the effect of social anxiety on the quality of life in these patients. Methods: A consecutive cohort of 148 adult PWE from The First Hospital of Jilin University were recruited. In this sample, 116 patients had focal epilepsy, 20 had generalized epilepsy, and 12 had unclassified epilepsy. Depressive symptoms, social anxiety, and quality of life were evaluated using the Chinese version of the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), 20-item Social Phobia Scale (SPS), 20-item Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS), and Quality-of-Life Inventory in Epilepsy-31 (QOLIE-31), respectively. Multivariate linear regression analyses were employed to identify independent factors influencing SPS scores and SIAS scores. Results: Correlation analysis suggested that sex, age at onset, seizure frequency over the last year, AED treatment model, >50% nocturnal seizures, PHQ-9 score, and QOLIE-31 score had a significant correlation with the SPS score. The age at onset, seizure frequency over the last year, AED treatment model, PHQ-9 score, and QOLIE-31 score correlated with the SIAS score. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the total QOLIE-31 score (beta = -0.481; p = 0.001) was inversely associated with the SPS score in PWE. Additionally, earlier age of onset (beta = -0.156; p = 0.022) and low total QOLIE-31 score (beta = -0.457; p = 0.001) were risk factors for high SIAS scores. Conclusion: We found that social anxiety was independently associated with poor quality of life. Earlier age of onset was also a risk factor for social anxiety. Future studies with large sample sizes are required to confirm our findings. (C) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.