QUALITY OF LIFE OF PERSONS WITH EPILEPSY AMONG ADOLESCENTS AND ADULTS USING TWO MAJOR HOSPITALS IN THE GAMBIA

Objective: Epilepsy is a significant public health problem globally. The social stigma and impact on quality of life (QOL) may pose a bigger challenge than the clinical entity. In The Gambia, there are no studies on the QOL in patients with epilepsy. This study was conducted to determine the health-related QOL (HRQOL) of patients with epilepsy in two selected hospitals in The Gambia. Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study conducted over three months (July 30th to October 30th, 2023). Adolescents aged 18 years and above and adults with a diagnosis of epilepsy were included in the study. The Quality of life in Epilepsy-31 (QOLIE- 31) tool was used to collect data on HRQOL in the study Results: The QOLIE- 31 score of the 78 patients with epilepsy ranged from 27 - 98 with a mean (standard deviation) score of 63 (16.32). Two (2.6%) patients had scores ranging from 91 - 100 (excellent quality of life); 12 (14.4%) had scores ranging from 81-90 (very good quality of life); 14 (17.9%) scored 71 – 80 (good quality of life); 16 (20.5%) had scores ranging from 61 – 70 (regular quality of life). Thirty-four (43.6%) had a poor quality of life (scores ≤ 60). Conclusion: Almost half of the participants (43.5%) had poor QOL, and the single most important factor was seizure worry. Hence, pragmatic psychological effort should be made to reduce stigma associated with epilepsy.