Dados do Trabalho

Título

Social support, quality of life, and clinical aspects of epilepsy

Introdução

Introduction: There are still gaps in the knowledge of the relationship between the perception of social support as a positive coping strategy in epilepsy.

Objetivo

Objectives: To relate the perception of social support with the clinical, cognitive, and quality of life (QoL) aspects of adult people with epilepsy (PWEs).

Método

Methods: The Social support satisfaction scale (SSSS) was related to clinical aspects, the Quality of life in epilepsy inventory-31 (QOLIE-31), and the Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) of 123 PWE, with a significance level of p <0.05.

Resultados

Results: 52% of the sample was composed of women (n=64). The mean age of the sample was 45±15.6 years, being 21.6±15.9 years old at the time of the 1st seizure. The epileptic syndrome was genetic (generalized) in 14 cases, with no defined etiology in 31 cases and structural focal in 75 cases. The mean scores were: HADS anxiety, 7.7±5.9; HADS depression 4.8±3.8; QOLIE-31 (total score) 60.1±16.8; SSSS (total score) 54.2±15.1. We observed a negative association between the SSSS total score and HADS anxiety (Pearson correlation; -0.499; p<0.001) and HADS depression (-0.505; p<0.001). There was a significant correlation between QOLIE-31 (total score) and the SSSS (total score) (0.311; p=0.001). There was no correlation between the SSSS scores (dimensions and total score) and clinical aspects (age at onset, type and frequency of seizures, and epileptic syndrome).

Conclusão

Discussion: A higher perception of social support is associated with better QoL. Clinical aspects of epilepsy were not associated with the perception of social support. Lower perception of social support was correlated with the presence of anxiety and depression, suggesting the integrated aspect of comorbidities influences the perception of QoL in epilepsy. Scholarship CNPq/FAPESP.

Palavras-chave

Keywords: social support, epilepsy, quality of life.