Photo Credit: Andrey Popov
Frailty represents a comprehensive health measure in epilepsy, according to findings published in Epilepsia. Marco Canevelli, MD, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study of 153 patients with epilepsy to develop a frailty index for this patient population. Multiple linear regression showed that this 33-item frailty index had an independent association with age, being a woman, higher BMI, family history of epilepsy, intellectual disability, and the number of antiseizure medications. The researchers reported a moderate positive correlation between the frailty index and psychological distress, lower QOL, and physical frailty. The researchers found a weak association between higher frailty index scores and a higher number of epileptic falls. The study “suggests that frailty in this specific population is not only a manifestation of aging but is inherently linked to epilepsy and treatment-related factors,” Dr. Canevelli and colleagues wrote.
