Predicting the quality of life in Hong Kong Chinese adults with epilepsy

Epilepsy is both a medical diagnosis and a social label. The traditional care of patients with epilepsy tends to focus on seizure control and drug treatment. There is a growing concern in the West about the importance of the influence of psychosocial factors on the quality of life. The main purpose of the present study is to explore and delineate the relationships between biomedical and psychosocial predictors and the health-related quality-of-life outcomes of Chinese patients in Hong Kong. Independent measures consisted of two types of predictors: biomedical and psychosocial variables. The biomedical variables included seizure frequency and the number of years since diagnosis. The psychosocial variables included locus of control, social support, and mood. The Quality of Life in Epilepsy Scale was used as the outcome measure. Correlation and hierarchical regression techniques were used. Results showed that psychosocial variables did make a significantly independent contribution to the prediction of the quality of life of patients with epilepsy. Furthermore, results suggested that mood could act as a mediator between seizure characteristics and psychosocial factors, on the one hand, and quality of life, on the other. The statistical significance of the health locus of control and the satisfaction with social support confirmed the importance of the influence of the subjective sense of mastery of condition on quality of life. The clinical implication was discussed in the context of developing psychological interventions in increasing the self-efficacy and resourcefulness of the patients.