Health-related quality of life and its determinants among ambulatory patients with epilepsy at Ambo General Hospital, Ethiopia: Using WHOQOL-BREF

BACKGROUND: Health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) is used as a measure of treatment outcomes, in addition to seizure control. Hence, the study was aimed to assess HRQOL and its determinants among adult patients with epilepsy (PWE). METHOD: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 20 to June 27/2019, through patient interviews and patient’s chart review (medication and clinical information). Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. The psychometric property was done using Cronbach’s alpha test value of >0.7 as accepted internal consistency and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sample size adequacy value of ≥0.5 as acceptable construct validity, for Afaan Oromo version questionnaire. Multivariate linear logistic regression analysis was done to find predictors for the HRQOL score. RESULTS: Of 121 PWE included in the study, 24.4% had overall poor HRQOL with the overall mean ±SD score of 56.42±10.96. The predictors for low overall HRQOL score were: presence of co-morbidity (B = -5.620, SE = 1.531, p<0.0001, 95% C.I = -8.656 to -2.584), uncontrolled seizure for at least 2 years (B = -4.239, SE = 1.296, p = 0.001, 95% C.I = -6.809 to -1.670), divorced (B = -8.423, SE = 2.241, p<0.0001, 95%C.I = -12.867 to -3.978) relative to married, and no education (B = -8.715, SE = -8.15, SE = 2.604, p = 0.001, 95%C.I = -9.648 to -1.316) relative to who had level of education above tertiary. In addition, uncontrolled seizure (irrespective of time since seizure-free) (B = -10.083, SE = 2.104, p<0.0001, 95%C.I = -14.256 to -5.910), being widowed (B = -9.300, SE = 3.594, p = 0.011, 95%C.I = -16.429–2.170) relative to married and being illiterate/no education (B = -13.004, SE = 3.910, p = 0.001, 95%C.I = -20.760 to -5.248) relative to educational level of tertiary and above were found to be the strongest negative predictors of HRQOL of physical health. Moreover, uncontrolled seizure (irrespective of time since seizure-free) (B = -12.668, SE = 2.019, p<0.0001, 95%C.I = -16.671 to -8.664) and being divorced (B = -10.153, SE = 3.228, p = 0.002, 95%C.I = -16.556 to -3.751) compared to married were strong predictors for low HRQOL score of psychological health. Absence of Poly-pharmacy (B = 9.050, SE = 3.027, P = 0.003, 95%C.I = 3.047 to 15.054), being single (B = -9.551, SE = 2.095, p<0.0001, 95%C.I = -14.419 to -4.683), and divorced (B = -11.022, SE = 3.351, P = 0.001, 95%C.I = -17.668 to -4.376) relative to married were found to be strong predictors for HRQOL score of social health. Moreover, low HRQOL score of environmental health was predicted by rural residence (B = -5.795, SE = 2.101, p = 0.007, 95%C.I = -9.962 to -1.628), co-morbidity (B+ -4.230, SE = 2.125, p = 0.049, 95%C.I = -8.444 to -0.015) & uncontrolled seizure irrespective of time since seizure-free (B = -6.907, SE = 1.945, p = 0.001, 95%C.I = -10.765 to -3.049) and uncontrolled seizure of at least 2 years (B = -4.520, SE = 1.798, p = 0.014, 95%C.I = -8.088 to -0.953). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the study participants had a good overall HRQOL. In general, a low level of HRQOL score was significantly associated with the marital status of single/widowed/divorced, low level of education, low level of monthly income, co-morbidity, uncontrolled seizure, and poly-pharmacy; irrespective of HRQOL domains. Therefore, it is required to improve HRQOL, by avoiding modifiable factors for PWE to achieve the optimum HRQOL.