King Abdulaziz Medical City, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Epilepsy Behav. 2019 Oct;99:106401. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2019.07.002. Epub 2019 Aug 24.
The issue of epilepsy and driving has legal, social, and psychological implications. Many countries in the world restrict driving to people prone to epilepsy. There is no data from Saudi Arabia regarding the prevalence of driving among patients with epilepsy and their driving practices. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, there are no local laws or guidelines concerning driving for patients with epilepsy in Saudi Arabia. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of driving among male patients with epilepsy at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and determine the barriers and difficulties that they are suffering from especially when it comes to driving.
This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted between July 2017 and June 2018 at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The inclusion criteria of this study were male patients with epilepsy 18 years of age or above. The exclusion criteria were female patients at any age (since they were not allowed to drive at the time of the study) and male patients less than 18 years of age. This study utilized a self-made self-administered 25-item questionnaire.
A total of 182 surveys were distributed, and 164 individuals completed the survey (90.1% response rate). Most of the participants have a driving license (95.7%) and drive a car (98.8%). Almost all participants (99.4%) mentioned that nobody asked them whether they have epilepsy or not when issuing a driver's license. In addition, 94.5% were never told not to drive after the diagnosis of epilepsy. Regarding restrictions to driving, 98.7% reported that they drive at all times without any restrictions, and 92.7% reported that they drive both inside and outside the city.
This study showed that the number of male patients with epilepsy driving cars was extremely high, accounting for almost all the patients in this study, with most of them doing several wrong practices during driving. Other major issues include the lack of specific laws regulating driving for patients with epilepsy and no counseling from physicians about driving after the diagnosis of epilepsy. We recommend developing the Saudi driving regulations for patients with epilepsy, and this study is considered an urgent call for action for the formation of a local driving regulations taskforce. Health education about the risk of driving should be disseminated, especially for patients with uncontrolled epilepsy.
癫痫和驾驶问题涉及法律、社会和心理等方面。世界上许多国家都限制癫痫患者开车。沙特阿拉伯尚无关于癫痫患者驾驶情况及其驾驶行为的相关数据。据我们所知，沙特阿拉伯也没有针对癫痫患者驾驶的地方性法律法规或准则。本研究旨在确定沙特吉达阿卜杜勒阿齐兹国王医疗城男性癫痫患者的驾车比例，并确定他们在驾驶过程中遇到的障碍和困难。
这是一项在沙特吉达阿卜杜勒阿齐兹国王医疗城进行的横断面研究，时间为 2017 年 7 月至 2018 年 6 月。本研究的纳入标准为 18 岁及以上的男性癫痫患者。排除标准为任何年龄的女性患者（因为在研究期间她们不允许开车）和 18 岁以下的男性患者。本研究采用了一份自制的 25 项问卷。
共发放了 182 份调查问卷，164 人完成了调查（应答率为 90.1%）。大多数参与者都有驾照（95.7%）并开车（98.8%）。几乎所有参与者（99.4%）表示，在颁发驾照时没有人询问他们是否患有癫痫。此外，94.5%的人在被诊断出癫痫后从未被告知不能开车。关于驾驶限制，98.7%的人报告说他们一直在开车，没有任何限制，92.7%的人报告说他们在市内和市外都开车。
本研究表明，男性癫痫患者开车的人数非常多，几乎占了本研究中所有患者，其中大多数人在驾驶过程中存在多项错误行为。其他主要问题包括缺乏专门针对癫痫患者驾驶的法律法规，以及医生在诊断癫痫后没有对驾驶问题进行咨询。我们建议制定沙特癫痫患者驾驶规定，本研究呼吁成立一个地方性驾驶规定工作组。应开展有关驾驶风险的健康教育，特别是针对那些癫痫未得到控制的患者。
