Minneapolis [US]: According to new research, people with epilepsy who live in disadvantaged neighbourhoods with higher poverty rates and fewer educational and employment opportunities may be more likely to have memory, thinking, and mental health problems than people with epilepsy who live in less disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Findings of the study published in the online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that living in low-income areas causes memory and mental health issues. It only demonstrates a connection.
"Epilepsy research has arguably ignored the potential impact of the social determinants of health in neighborhoods on cognition-factors that have been hiding in plain sight for many years," said study author Robyn Busch, PhD, of Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. "Our study shows that these neighborhood social factors are linked to epilepsy outcomes."
For the study, researchers reviewed a registry of people with temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common adult form of epilepsy, which is associated with high risk for thinking problems and depressed mood. Researchers identified 800 people with an average age of 38 whose epilepsy was resistant to treatment and who were evaluated for potential epilepsy surgery. Researchers compared the participants' scores on measures of intelligence, attention, memory and other thinking skills, depression and anxiety.
Researchers used the home address of each participant and a measure called the Area Deprivation Index to determine if each participant lived in an advantaged or disadvantaged neighborhood. The index incorporates information on the socioeconomic conditions of each neighborhood and its residents, ranking neighborhoods based on 17 indicators including income, employment, education and housing quality. Neighborhoods in the index are determined by census areas of about 1,500 residents. Researchers divided participants into five groups based on neighborhood advantage.