Impact of epilepsy on employment in Malaysia》.pdf

Epilepsy Behavior 27 (2013) 130–134 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Epilepsy Behavior journal homepage: www.e lsevie r. com/ locate/ yebeh Impact of epilepsy on employment in Malaysia Kheng Seang Lim a,⁎, Su Woan Wo b, Mee Hoo Wong a, Chong Tin Tan a a Division of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Malaysia b Department of Primary Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Malaysia a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Introduction: Studies on the impact of epilepsy on employment have been extensively performed in European Received 5 October 2012 and some Asian countries but not in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia, a country with a robust economy, low Revised 5 December 2012 unemployment rate, and minimal social security benefits for the unemployed. This study aims to determine Accepted 28 December 2012 the impact of epilepsy on employment in Malaysia. Available online 14 February 2013 Methods: Two hundred fifty subjects (52.4% male) with a mean age of 35.2 years were recruited from a tertiary neurology clinic in Malaysia. Keywords: Results: Of the 250 subjects, 69.6% were employed full-time, 10.4% employed part-time, and 20.0% unemployed. Employment Part-time employment Furthermore, 42.8% had a monthly income below poverty line, i.e., RM1000 (USD 320). Unemployme