Health-related quality of life for children with epilepsy appears to be dependent in part on their parents’ ability to cope with the disorder, according to a recent study published in Epilepsy and Behavior.
- The analysis of 108 children and teens with epilepsy also revealed an association between parental helplessness and poorer quality of life.
- As expected, the severity of the child’s epilepsy was linked to poorer quality of life as well.
- These conclusions were based on parents’ responses to the Illness Cognition Questionnaire-Parent (ICQ-P), and the Quality of Life in Childhood Epilepsy questionnaire (QOLCE).
- ICQ-P evaluates a parent’s ability to cope with disease with the help of constructs of illness cognition.
- QOLCE helps clinicians evaluates the overall functioning of a child as perceived by parents.
McLaughlin RM, Schraegle WA, Nussbaum NL, et al. Parental coping and its role in predicting health-related quality of life in pediatric epilepsy. [Published online ahead of print August 23, 2018] Epilepsy Behav. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2018.08.009
