Abstract Details

Title Optimal Care Access Disparities in Adult Non-English-speaking Patients with Drug-resistant Epilepsy

Topic Epilepsy/Clinical Neurophysiology (EEG)

Presentation(s) P10 - Poster Session 10 (11:45 AM-12:45 PM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 1-005

Objective To measure the access to epilepsy surgery or neuromodulation devices in adult non-English-speaking compared to English-speaker epilepsy patients in Inland Empire, California.

Background Drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) comprises 40% of patients with focal epilepsy requiring treatment with epilepsy surgery or neuromodulation devices. Numerous studies show that delayed optimal care correlates with poor quality of life outcomes and accumulating socio-economic disabilities over the patient's lifespan. Furthermore, multiple studies suggest that non-English speakers in the United States have limited and delayed access to healthcare compared to English speakers. This project examines time-to-access to optimal care for these two groups of patients with similar demographics to identify factors accounting for the found disparity.

Design/Methods We retrospectively reviewed 206 presented cases in the pre-surgical conference from April 2020 to July 2023. We define the time-to-access optimal care, surgery, or neuromodulation as the time from the EMU admission to the first optimal surgical intervention.

Results We studied 206 DRE patients who are candidates for further epilepsy surgery or neuromodulation care in Inland Empire, California, from April 2020 to July 2023, of which 164 (80%) are English speakers and 42(20%) non-English speakers while 47% of the population in Inland Empire are non-English speakers. Furthermore, 80 out of 164 English speakers (48%) and 19 out of 42 non-English speakers (45%) received optimal care. The time-to-access optimal care was 303 days for English speakers versus 404 days for non-English speakers, 101 (33%) days longer.

Conclusions Our results provide evidence for optimal care disparities for non-English speakers in Inland Empire, California. This finding indicates that most non-English speakers are not referred to an epileptologist for optimal care evaluation. When non-English speakers get referred for an evaluation, they receive delayed care.

Authors/Disclosures
Cindy McKernan, RN (Loma Linda University Health) PRESENTER	Mrs. McKernan has nothing to disclose.
Rachel S. Kim	Dr. Kim has nothing to disclose.
Mohammad Dastjerdi, MD	Dr. Dastjerdi has nothing to disclose.

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