Predictors of good compliance in adolescents with epilepsy.

The purpose of this paper was to describe the factors that predict compliance in adolescents with epilepsy. Altogether 300 individuals aged 13-17 years were randomly selected from the Finnish Social Insurance Institution's register. Every fifth person on the list was included in the sample. Seventy-seven per cent (N= 232 ) of the selected adolescents with epilepsy returned the questionnaire. The data were analysed with SPSS software. Using the logistic regression model, the compliance of adolescents with epilepsy was predicted on the basis of support from physician and parents, motivation and the disease not being a threat of social well-being. The most powerful predictor was support from the physician. The likelihood of adolescents supported by their physicians complying with their health regimens was 10.56-fold compared with the adolescents who did not receive support from their physicians. Another powerful predictor was support from parents. The adolescents who received support from their parents complied with the health regimens with a 10.47-fold likelihood compared with adolescents who did not receive support from their parents. Adolescents with good motivation were 9.77 times more likely to comply than adolescents who did not have good motivation. Adolescents who did not feel the disease to be a threat to their social well-being complied with health regimens with an 8.38-fold likelihood compared to those who felt the disease to be a threat to social well-being. The value of the -2Log likelihood was 64.68 and the goodness of fit index was 214.735. The value of Nagelkerke was 0.893, which indicates that the logistic regression model explains 89% of the variance. The model predicts correctly 97% of compliance in adolescents showing good compliance. These values show the logistic regression model to be good and to match well with the data. Copyright 2001 BEA Trading Ltd.