Adults with an epilepsy history fare significantly worse on positive mental and physical health than adults with other common chronic conditions—Estimates from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey and Patient Reported Outcome Measurement System (PROMIS) Global Health Scale
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Abstract
Healthy People 2020, a national health promotion initiative, calls for increasing
the proportion of U.S. adults who self-report good or better health. The Patient-Reported
Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Global Health Scale (GHS) was identified
as a reliable and valid set of items of self-reported physical and mental health to
monitor these two domains across the decade. The purpose of this study was to examine
the percentage of adults with an epilepsy history who met the Healthy People 2020
target for self-reported good or better health and to compare these percentages to
adults with history of other common chronic conditions. Using the 2010 National Health
Interview Survey, we compared and estimated the age-standardized prevalence of reporting
good or better physical and mental health among adults with five selected chronic
conditions including epilepsy, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and hypertension.
We examined response patterns for physical and mental health scale among adults with
these five conditions. The percentages of adults with epilepsy who reported good or
better physical health (52%) or mental health (54%) were significantly below the Healthy
People 2020 target estimate of 80% for both outcomes. Significantly smaller percentages
of adults with an epilepsy history reported good or better physical health than adults
with heart disease, cancer, or hypertension. Significantly smaller percentages of
adults with an epilepsy history reported good or better mental health than adults
with all other four conditions. Health and social service providers can implement
and enhance existing evidence-based clinical interventions and public health programs
and strategies shown to improve outcomes in epilepsy. These estimates can be used
to assess improvements in the Healthy People 2020 Health-Related Quality of Life and
Well-Being Objective throughout the decade.