A comparative assessment of health-related quality of life in people with epilepsy and healthy controls in a tertiary hospital in Northwest Nigeria

Introduction: Epilepsy impacts negatively on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of affected individuals. Aim: This study compared the HRQoL of patients with epilepsy with age- and-sex matched healthy controls. Materials and Methods: A comparative cross-sectional case–control study was carried out on 206 participants who were ≥18 years. The World Health Organization Quality Of Life instrument was interviewer administered to all the participants. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Results: The mean ages of the patients and controls were 33.4 ± 15.8 and 34.5 ± 11.8 years, respectively. Both the groups consisted of 54 males (52.4%) and 49 females (47.6%) each. The mean HRQoL score of the patients, 65.2 ± 16.4, was significantly lower than that of the controls, 69.6 ± 14.6 (t = −2.043, P = 0.042). Furthermore, people with epilepsy (PWE) had significantly impaired HRQoL in general health (t = −3.826, P = 0.0005), physical health (t = −2.768, P = 0.006), and psychological health (t = −2.266, P = 0.025) domains. However, no significant difference was observed in the social relationship and environmental health domains (t = 0.682, P = 0.496, t = −0.516, P = 0.606), respectively between PWE and controls. Conclusion: Epilepsy significantly impaired the HRQoL of its sufferers compared to healthy controls, especially in the general health, physical health, and psychological health domains. There is therefore the need to ensure comprehensive and evidence-based individualized care to improve their HRQoL and overall outcome.