[Health-related quality of life in children with epilepsy in a Mexican hospital].

INTRODUCTION

Epilepsy is a chronic neurological syndrome that is accompanied by abnormal, synchronic and exaggerated discharges in the cerebral cortex. Epilepsy is inversely related to health-related quality of life (HRQL), although little has been published on this relationship in children in Latin America.

AIM

To examine the relation between epilepsy and HRQL in a group of schoolchildren aged 8-12 years who were treated in a paediatric hospital in Sonora, Mexico.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted to compare the HRQL of children diagnosed with epilepsy with respect to the HRQL of two control groups. The validated questionnaire Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory was used to evaluate HRQL. Differences were examined by means of an ANOVA test and the association between epilepsy and HRQL was modelled by means of multiple logistic regression.

RESULTS

The children with epilepsy displayed the lowest HRQL score (62.4 ± 14.8) of the subjects studied and had 5.2 times as much risk of their HRQL deteriorating (95% confidence interval = 2.43-11.06) compared to healthy children. Deterioration was greater on the cognitive (54.6 ± 15.0) and emotional scales (55.9 ± 23.6). Polypharmacy, i.e. the concomitant ingestion of three or more drugs (p < 0.001), and the chronological progression of suffering (p < 0.001) are factors that significantly deteriorate the HRQL of children with epilepsy.

CONCLUSIONS

Epilepsy gives rise to an overall deterioration in the HRQL of children, specifically in the cognitive and emotional spheres, which is related with the chronological progression of the disease and polypharmacy.