Mohsen Abbasi Kangevari
Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran
Title: Do mothers underestimate quality of life of their children with epilepsy?
Biography
Biography: Mohsen Abbasi Kangevari
Abstract
Children with epilepsy face many challenges not limited to seizures which affect their quality of life (QoL). Since mothers
of children with epilepsy become involved in seizure-related issues of their children, their reports could be valuable as a
proxy to measure QoL of children with epilepsy. This study reports whether mothers underestimated QoL of their children
with epilepsy. Mother-reported overall QoL score was measured by 76 subscales of Quality of Life in Children with Epilepsy
Questionnaire (QOLCE) which was developed by Sabaz. Beyond the 76 subscales, a question named QoL item was asked from
mothers about their children’s QoL during the previous four weeks. In response to QoL item, mothers could choose excellent
(score=90), very good (70), good (50), fair (30), and poor (10). In this study which was conducted during May to October 2017
in a children’s hospital in Tehran, we compared the overall QoL score and the score of QoL item. Participants included 223
children with epilepsy and their mothers. Among all children, 117(52.5%) were girls and the mean (SD) age of children was
6.8(6.0) years. The mean (SD) overall QoL of children was calculated 75.7(8.7) based on the 76 subscales of QOLCE. However,
the mean (SD) score of QoL item among children was 52.5(15.4), which was 30% less than the overall quality of life score.
Therefore, it could be concluded that mothers underestimated their children’s quality of life which could be due to low selfconfidence
in assessing their children.