Quality of Life in Epilepsy patients in India during Covid-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine the change in Quality of Life (QOL) in epilepsy patients in India during the Covid-19 pandemic. Background: It is important to determine the effect of this Covid-19 pandemic on the QOL of epilepsy patients in India. This will educate us about the needs of this community of patients and this will inform the types of interventions that are needed to improve the QOL of these patients. Design/Methods: A QOLIE-10-P questionnaire was administered to 172 epilepsy patients before the pandemic started and then it was again administered to the same patients during the pandemic. All patients were from a single Epilepsy Center in Mumbai, India. Results: We compared the results of a baseline QOLIE-10-P, pre-pandemic, with results of a QOLIE-10-P administered during the pandemic in the same patients. This was administered in each of the 172 epilepsy patients. The aggregate and individual scores showed that there was improvement in trouble in transportation, work limitation and social limitations. As the country was in lockdown most people worked from home, there was little need for transportation and there was minimal social interaction allowed. There was also improvement in scores about trouble with side effects of AEDs. There was also improvement in QOL in last 4 weeks and less distress with the epilepsy related QOL. There was worsening in the score about being afraid of having a seizure, there was an acute shortage of hospital beds during the pandemic. There was also worsening in feeling downhearted and low. Conclusions: This is the first study done about the Quality of Life of Epilepsy patients in India, a country with over 10 million epilepsy patients. These findings will help us understand how the epilepsy patient's QOL is being affected during the Covid-19 pandemic in India.