BACKGROUND: Research focused on the quality of life of epileptic patients began only very recently in China; in particular, most research has focused on children, but less on epileptic adults.OBJECTIVE: To survey and analyze 11 influential factors for quality of life in adults with epilepsy by using quality of life epilepsy-31 scale.DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.SETTING: Department of Neurology, First Hospital Affiliated to Jinan University; Department of Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College.PARTICIPANTS: A total of 107 adults with epilepsy for longer than one year were selected from Department of Neurology, First Hospital Affiliated to Jinan University between March 2004 and December 2006. The included patients met the Classification and Diagnostic Criteria of Epileptic Attack published by International Anti-Epilepsy League in 1981, and they provided informed consent. METHODS: General states, including course, attack frequency, marriage status, educational level, occupational types, economic status, attack types, drug types, and drug amount, were recorded. There were seven aspects in the Quality of Life Epilepsy-31 scale, including attack worry, life satisfaction, emotion, vigor/tiredness, drug influence, cognitive function, and social function. The scores positively correlated with the quality of life. Possible influential factors for quality of life were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and multivariate regression analysis.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Course, attack frequency, marriage status, educational level, occupational types, economic status, attack types, drug types, drug amount, age, and sex.RESULTS: A total of 107 epileptic patients were included in the final analysis. Influential factors for quality of life in epileptic adults included attack frequency, educational level, economic status, attack types, drug amount, age, and course of disease (P < 0.05). Among them, attack frequency negatively correlated with attack worry, life satisfaction, emotion, vigor/tiredness, cognitive function, social function, and total scores (P < 0.05); economic status positively correlated with emotion, social function, life satisfaction, and total scores (P < 0.05); educational level positively correlated with attack worry, cognitive function, and total scores (P < 0.05); course of disease negatively correlated with social function (P < 0.05); and age negatively correlated with life satisfaction (P < 0.05). Scores from partial seizures in cognitive function and drug influence were significantly higher than scores of general seizures (P < 0.05), and scores of single drug treatment compared to life satisfaction were also significantly higher than scores of multi-drug treatments (P < 0.05).CONCLUSION: Attack frequency, attack type, economic status, educational level, drug amount, age, and course of disease are influence factors for quality of life in epileptic adults.