Quality of Life in Epilepsy: A Study of Brazilian Adolescents

OBJECTIVE: Our objectives were: to assess the QOL of Brazilian adolescents with epilepsy with a specific QOL assessment tool; to compare the adolescents with epilepsy and healthy adolescents using a generic QOL assessment tool; to correlate the 2 different QOL assessment tools (the generic and the epilepsy-specific); and to correlate QOL scores of the adolescents with epilepsy obtained by both tools with physical, psychological and social variables of the disease. METHODS: Fifty subjects (case group) attending the outpatient clinic of epilepsy of the Clinics Hospital of UNICAMP, Campinas-SP, answered the Brazilian version of the QOL inventory for adolescents with epilepsy - QOLIE-AD-48 and the QOL Questionnaire - WHOQOL – BREF – Portuguese version. Fifty-one subjects (control group) from public schools in Campinas-SP answered only the WHOQOL-BREF. RESULTS: The results showed that adolescents with epilepsy presented a good score of QOL in both tools; overall scores for both groups with WHOQOL-BREF were good, but a statistically significant difference was seen with regards to the Psychological domain of the WHOQOL-BREF favoring the control group. Significant correlations between QOLIE-AD-48 Total and WHOQOL domains were found. Adolescents that were considered seizure-free (P = 0.001), had good perception of seizure control (P = 0.012) and had not had occurrence of seizures in public places (P = 0.001) presented better QOL scores. CONCLUSIONS: Brazilian adolescents with epilepsy may present good QOL scores when they themselves consider the disease as under control; physical, social and especially psychological variables associated to the disease may play an important role in these results. As a generic QOL tool, WHOQOL-BREF was sufficient to allow for a comparison between chronic disease bearers and healthy adolescents and showed that the gap in QOL between both populations is not as extensive as once was thought, probably due to better support and adaptation to the disease.