OBJECTIVES:

To understand the impact of epilepsy and improve care for affected patients, it is necessary to identify factors influencing QOL in epilepsy.The aim of our study was to assess the influence of different clinical and demographic variables on quality of life (QOL) in patients with epilepsy in Bulgaria.

METHODS:

A pilot survey was conducted in a sample of 40 outpatients with epilepsy mean aged 53.05 from Sofia, Bulgaria who visited a neurology department between april and august 2016. Clinical and demographic characteristics were retrieved from medical records. Quality of life was measured by the Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory (QOLIE-31). The QOLIE-31 scale was translated into Bulgarian and standardized by forward translation, backward translation, and a pretest. The data collected were proceeded through SPSS 22.

RESULTS: There was no significant association between QOLIE-31 score and gender (p=0.516 amd QOLIE-31 score and age (p=0.811). Seizure frequency was strong predictor for all seven subscales. Employability explained 17.5% of the variance in the QOLIE overall score and was the strongest predictor for Overall QOL.

CONCLUSIONS:

The present study confirms that besides seizure frequency, employability and comorbid psychiatric conditions are strong predictors of QOL in patients with epilepsy. The situation of the Bulgarian patients with epilepsy is the same like the rest of the Europeans from QoL point of view.