Welcome to Kara Schmidt, PA and Registered Dietician for Infant Child & Adolescent Neurology

Health care disparities seen in epilepsy patients with low socioeconomic status
More uncontrolled seizures and drug-related side effects found in this patient group
22-Feb-2011
Dawn Peters

A newly published report reveals patients with epilepsy and low socioeconomic status (SES) are more likely to have uncontrolled seizures, drug-related side effects, and a lower overall quality of life. The study also indicates that low SES patients used the hospital emergency room more often and had more visits to a general practitioner than epileptic patients at higher socioeconomic levels. Full findings are now available in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that two million Americans have epilepsy and roughly 140,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Prior studies in epilepsy literature provide evidence of disparities in healthcare use between individuals of different SES. One study found that epileptic patients with incomes below the poverty level in California were 50% less likely than those with higher income (not in poverty) to report taking epilepsy medication (Elliott et al., 2009).

Read the rest of the article here.