Marital status of patients with epilepsy: Factors and quality of life

•We explored PWE's marital adjustment, their factors, and their QOL.•Clinical aspects of epilepsy are negatively associated with the marital status.•Psychiatric comorbidity and epilepsy duration are positively associated with divorce.•Uncontrolled seizures and early onset were negatively associated with marriage.•PWE with psychiatric comorbidity are disadvantaged in terms of QOL.

PurposeThe study investigated how marital status relates to clinical aspects and quality of life (QOL) in patients with epilepsy (PWE).MethodThe clinical data and Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory (QOLIE-31) scores of 252 PWE were regressed against their marital status with a significance level of 5% (p < 0.05).ResultsLogistic regression for single and married PWE revealed that singles had more abnormalities in the neurological examination (p = 0.029) and earlier seizure onset (p < 0.001), while for married and divorced PWE revealed the latter more psychiatric comorbidities (p = 0.002) and longer disease duration (p = 0.011). Regarding QOL score, linear regression showed that psychiatric comorbidity was the only factor (p < 0.001).ConclusionThe marital status of PWE is negatively associated with clinical aspects of epilepsy.