Epilepsy Self Management Study

Introduction:

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disease that the use of self-management strategies is essential to increase patient safety and quality of life. The aim of this study Identify the features and capabilities of epilepsy self-management application from Perspectives of Patient and physicians.

Methods:

In this cross-sectional study, the perspective of 100 patients with epilepsy who were members of the Iranian Epilepsy Society and 15 physicians who were member or colleagues of the Iranian Epilepsy Society were studied by using the questionnaire about training needs, essential data elements and features of the application. The data were analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and Kruskal-Wallis

According to WHO, about fifty million people have epilepsy around the world. Traditional medical care to patients for control their seizures include drug therapy and surgery. But recently acknowledged that the comprehensive epilepsy treatment beyond these treatments. Adherence to medication and behavioral factors irrelevant to medicine Such as personal information management, management of seizures and lifestyle, play an important role in the success of epilepsy treatment. In other words, self-management as the core of treatment and management of epilepsy. Several studies indicate that improve self-management in patients with epilepsy leading to Better quality of life, increase medication adherence, higher self-efficacy. In recent years, efforts been done to develop new models for self- management using information technology. Mobile technology platform to improve the care of chronic diseases, because most people use a mobile phone, and The use of this technology is higher than to other technology among racial and ethnic minorities and people in low-income countries. According to studies, the use of mobile phones can be helpful in managing chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and asthma. From a medical perspective, self-management is an important factor affecting the treatment

The Questionnaire was designed for doctors and patients were similar except in the case of their disease characteristics and tend to use the program .The questionnaire included demographic and clinical characteristics of the participants and also has four main sections: 1. educational needs 2. The essential data elements (demographic and clinical) 3. Perspectives of Patient about the application and 4. The required features for Epilepsy self-management application. The first section has 19 questions in three areas (Information epilepsy, lifestyle, and medications). The second section contains 22 questions about demographic and clinical data were recorded. The third section consists of six questions about Perspectives of Patient to use application that only be given to patients and Fourth section consists of questions in eight areas on the features of the application: Medication management (9 questions), Nutrition and diet management (6 questions), Reduce stress and control (4 questions), Sleep control (5 questions), Seizure management (7 questions), Communicate (two questions), Exercise and relaxation (4 questions) And tools (9 questions). Totally 92 questions to the patients and the physicians were 86 questions. The method of answering questions based on a Likert scale for the educational needs (from very high to