Quality of life issues and occupational performance of persons with epilepsy

Abstract

Epilepsy causes restrictions in the performance of various daily activities. The aiming of this study was to investigate whether these restrictions affect the perceived quality of life. The assessments Quality of Life in Epilepsy-31 (QOLIE-31) and Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) were applied in a sample that consisted of a single group of 34 subjects with at least two years of uncontrolled seizures. The results indicated that the most affected domains of QOLIE-31 were seizure worry, 29.77 (±21.72), and effects of drugs, 49.75 (±28.58), and for the COPM, the average of performance and satisfaction were respectively 3.10 (±3.07) and 4.45 (±3.29), and performance limitations most frequently cited were maintain employment (18), left home alone (15) and courses (15). The application of the Spearman correlation coefficient showed that the three main performance limitations posed by the COPM, especially regarding the level of satisfaction, influence the perception of quality of life. Thus, occupational performance proves to be an important area of intervention with subjects with epilepsy.