Table 1.
Predictors | Individuals with epilepsy | Biological relatives without epilepsy | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||
Na | % Definitely/probably yes | p-valueb | Na | % Definitely/probably yes | p-valueb | |
All participants | 143 | 85.0 | -- | 165 | 74.2 | -- |
Female | 87 | 93.8 | <0.001 | 95 | 72.2 | 0.74 |
Male | 56 | 71.2 | Ref. | 70 | 76.9 | Ref. |
Age <40 years | 28 | 92.9 | 0.27 | 38 | 81.6 | 0.14 |
Age 40–59 years | 69 | 82.6 | 0.77 | 74 | 74.3 | 0.55 |
Age ≥60 years | 46 | 84.8 | Ref. | 53 | 69.8 | Ref. |
Do not have children | 49 | 89.8 | Ref. | 40 | 75.0 | Ref. |
Have children | 91 | 82.4 | 0.24 | 123 | 75.6 | 0.93 |
College graduate or higher | 77 | 84.0 | 0.75 | 92 | 81.3 | 0.11 |
Less than college graduate | 65 | 86.0 | Ref. | 73 | 64.1 | Ref. |
Catholic | 29 | 80.8 | 0.41 | 54 | 64.3 | 0.25 |
Protestant | 48 | 88.9 | 0.78 | 49 | 81.0 | 0.59 |
Otherc | 29 | 82.1 | 0.44 | 30 | 78.6 | 1.00 |
None/Atheist/Prefer not to say | 29 | 88.9 | Ref. | 30 | 78.6 | Ref. |
Opinion of role of genetics in causing epilepsy in familyd | ||||||
Medium/big | 108 | 87.6 | 0.17 | 112 | 78.0 | 0.39 |
None/small | 33 | 76.5 | Ref. | 45 | 68.4 | Ref. |
Opinion of chance has a mutationd | ||||||
Moderate/high | 78 | 88.7 | 0.15 | 64 | 86.9 | 0.001 |
None/small/don’t know | 62 | 81.4 | Ref. | 101 | 66.0 | Ref. |
Focal epilepsy | 80 | 87.5 | 0.29 | |||
Generalized epilepsy | 34 | 79.4 | Ref. | |||
Last seizure <1 year ago | 35 | 91.4 | 0.21 | |||
Last seizure ≥1 year ago | 84 | 84.5 | Ref. | |||
Lifetime number of seizures | ||||||
≤20 | 63 | 82.5 | Ref. | |||
21–100 | 24 | 79.2 | 0.72 | |||
>100 | 29 | 96.6 | 0.02 | |||
Unknown | 27 | 85.2 | 0.73 |
Total Ns vary among different variables because of missing data.
p-value from robust Poisson regression with generalized estimating equations, compared with reference group (denoted by Ref.).
Affected individuals: 10 identified as Jewish, 1 Hindu, 1 Buddhist, and 17 “Other.” Unaffected individuals: 6 identified as Jewish, 1 Buddhist, and 23 “Other.”
Genetic attribution assessed by responses to the questions, “In your opinion, how big a role has genetics had in causing the epilepsy in your family?” and “In your opinion, what do you think the chances are that you have a change or mutation in a gene that affects risk for epilepsy?”