'Factors affecting quality of life in adults with epilepsy: insights from South Africa' with Nwabisa Mlandu

Nwabisa Mlandu is a qualified neuropsychologist and a master’s graduate from the Department of Psychology at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa. She has worked as a research assistant, guest lecturer and an adult and paediatric neuropsychologist and brings valuable insights into the intersections of health care, technology, and community narratives.

Nwabisa is currently completing her MSc degree in Neuroethics with the Ethics Lab based at the Neuroscience Institute at UCT. Her research interests lie in epilepsy, neuroethics, cross-cultural neuropsychology and neurotechnology, and improving quality of life in people living with neurodegenerative diseases.

Watch the lecture she delivered below:

Epilepsy is the most prevalent of the non-communicable diseases that have a neurological origin!  Although the burden of epilepsy is most significant in low and middle income countries, relatively few studies investigate the impact of this neurological condition on the quality of life of people with epilepsy in those countries.

In this talk, Nwabisa Mlandu, Visiting Fellow on the Oxford Martin Programme on Global Epilepsy, will explore and evaluate current knowledge on the predictors (socio demographic, clinical, psychiatric, psychosocial) of quality of life in adults with epilepsy, particularly in South Africa.

It is crucial that clinicians and researchers are aware of how the influence of these predictors might differ from one geographic region to another – such awareness will allow the design or adjustment of interventions to optimise them for use in different countries.