Vol. 420 No. 9
147 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health if he will outline his views on a recent study carried out on 343 patients attending a seizure clinic with epilepsy and on a study carried out by the department of neurology at Cork Regional Hospital and the department of statistics, UCC, which have shown that in terms of social grouping, employment and marital status these patients do not compare favourably with the general population.
The article to which the Deputy refers appeared in the March issue of the Irish Medical Journal.
The article reports on a study carried out on a random sample of 343 patients attending a seizure clinic at the Cork Regional Hospital over a period of 12 months.
The employment, marital, educational and social status of epileptic patients was assessed and compared with the overall population. The study found that approximately 40 per cent of patients belonged to social groups five and six compared with 14 per cent of the overall population and that 33 per cent of male patients aged 20 years or more were married, compared with 65 per cent in the community (the corresponding statistics for females were 46 per cent and 73 per cent respectively).
The study also found that the male unemployment rate in the group assessed was 34 per cent compared with an unemployment rate of 13 per cent for the period during which the study data was collected.
With regard to educational attainments, the study found that patients with lower educational attainments were significantly more likely to have poor seizure control or require polypharmacy. A similar situation was found between seizure control and social status, with poor seizure control occurring in patients in social group six.
