Abstracts

Rationale: To establish the most important aspects of quality of life (QOL) in a unique cohort of underserved, primarily monolingual and immigrant, Hispanic people with epilepsy (PWE) using an underutilized item of the Quality of Life in Epilepsy–31–P, Version 2 (QOLIE-31-P). Methods: One hundred fifteen PWE (55.7% females) aged 19 to 58 years (M = 36.51) completed the QOLIE-31-P, version 2, as part of their comprehensive presurgical evaluation. Results from the final item of the QOLIE-31-P, in which respondents ranked seven epilepsy-related topics in order of importance, were retrospectively analyzed and compared to other subscales in the assessment.The cohort was entirely Hispanic and primarily immigrant (84.5%). Seizure onsets were temporal (79.4%), generalized (17.6%), and frontal (2.9%). Reported seizure burdens (seizures/month) were 0-1/mo (12%), 2-4/mo (48%), 5-29/mo (32%) and >30/mo (8%). Participants reported average years of education (M = 10.07), years with seizures (M = 23.78), number of antiepileptic (M = 2.36) and failed antiepileptic (M = 1.97) drugs. Results: Respondents ranked these themes as most important accordingly: Overall QOL (22.6%), Mental Activity (17.4%), Daily Activities (15.7%), Energy (14.8%), Seizure Worry (13%), Medication Effects (12.2%) and Emotions (4.3%).The most important topics significantly varied as a function of sex, ?²(6, N = 115) = 14.11, p = 0.03. Males were more likely to rank Emotions, Medication Effects, and Overall QOL as most important, while females were more likely to highlight Energy, Mental Activity, and Seizure Worry as most important. Males and females were equally likely to rank Daily Activities as most important.ANOVA revealed that Cognitive subscale domain scores varied across the different themes of most importance, F(6,108) = 2.66, p = 0.02. Those who ranked Seizure Worry as most important reported significantly lower quality of life on the Cognitive subscales than those who ranked Daily Activities as most important, Tukey, p = 0.02.  Other QOLIE-31-P subscales did not significantly vary across the remaining themes ranked as most important. Conclusions: This analysis outlines what the most important epilepsy-related QOL topics are for a unique, primarily immigrant and monolingual Hispanic population of PWE using the QOLIE-31-P. Most respondents ranked Overall QOL as most important. Males and females differed in their ranking of most important aspects of QOL. The findings also suggest that greater burden of cognitive dysfunction may correlate with degree to which PWE feel worried about the impact of seizures. Comparatively, PWE with less cognitive dysfunction burden likely have better ability to participate in daily activities and therefore may be more concerned about that. Opportunities exist for exploring the role of sex, acculturation and health beliefs on QOL in Hispanic PWE. These data can inform how multidisciplinary and auxiliary services can be incorporated to meet this unique and underserved group’s needs in a way sensitive to individual and collective priorities. Funding: None