Factors affecting compliance to treatment among children with epilepsy attending at a paediatric neurology clinic of a tertiary hospital in Enugu

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to determine the factors affecting compliance to treatment among children with epilepsy in Enugu,Nigeria. METHODS: Children with diagnosis of epilepsy were consecutively recruited.Their 6 months retrospective and 1 month prospective data were collected; and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 (p 0.05). RESULTS: Fifty six children with epilepsy (mean age= 9.7 ± 4.1 years) were studied. Generalized tonic clonic epilepsy was noted in 41.1% (23/56) of them. Thirty six (64.3%) complied strictly with the treatment regimen. Polytherapy, high cost of drugs, multiple drug dosages and drug related side effects affected compliance. Majority (79.4%, 27/34) of patients on monotherapy and a few (27.2%, 6/22) on poly-therapy had good seizure control (p 0.001). CONCLUSION: Poor drug compliance is a major constraint to adequate seizure control in children with epilepsy in our setting. Addressing the problem of poor compliance will enable them to achieve optimal seizure control.