The Social Stigma of Epilepsy in Korea / 대한간질학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: To study social stigma of people with epilepsy (PWE) in Korea, focusing on which factors are associated with social stigma. METHODS: Data were collected from 400 adult epilepsy patients (51% male, mean age32.9 years, range19-64 years). Patients were recruited from 10 epilepsy centers in Korea. Clinical information about seizures was obtained by neurologists and the other information was collected by using self-completed questionnaires including stigma of epilepsy scale and several scales or questions. RESULTS: Thirty one percent of PWE felt stigmatized by epilepsy, 9% of them highly so. The presence of stigma of epilepsy was associated with duration of epilepsy, seizure remission or frequency, generalized tonic clonic seizures in the last 2 years, seizure-related injuries in the last year, the actual discrimination from society, all subscales of QOLIE-31, education, introverted and neurotic personality, helplessness, control, and confidence in problem solving, anxiety and depression, and self-esteem. Multivariate analysis identified discrimination from society, introverted personality, problem solving control, and emotional subscale of QOLIE-31. CONCLUSION: Our data showed the prevalence of social stigma of PWE in Korea might be not high unexpectedly and suggested that the actual discrimination from society and patients' coping style including personality might be important in feeling social stigma of epilepsy. Our results would be basic information for the further studies to clarify the causative factors to generate the stigma of epilepsy.