Highlights
- •Adults with epilepsy reported difficulties in both basic and secondary math skills.
- •Difficulties in working memory accounted for a significant amount of variance in math outcomes.
- •The limited capacity storage component of working memory was detrimental for poor math.
- •Difficulties with mathematics may be comorbid with epilepsy, rather than epilepsy related.
Abstract
Objective
Mathematics encompass a variety of skills, broadly grouped into basic numeracy to
complex secondary mathematical skills. In children with epilepsy difficulties with
mathematics are common and related to a multicomponent working memory capacity. Little
is known about mathematical skills of adults with epilepsy in daily life. Hence, we
aimed to compare basic and secondary mathematical skills of adults with epilepsy to
controls, examine relations between mathematical skills and working memory, and explored
relationships between mathematical skills and epilepsy variables (age of onset, seizure
frequency, and anti-seizure medication).
Methods
Eighty four people with epilepsy and 86 healthy controls completed questionnaires
on their subjective experience of using mathematics and working memory skills in daily
life: The Dyscalculia Checklist (DC) and Working Memory Questionnaire (WMQ; including
attention, storage, and executive scales), respectively. Questionnaires also collected
demographic and epilepsy variables.
Results
Adults with epilepsy reported greater difficulties in basic and secondary mathematical
skills on the DC compared with controls. Only one epilepsy variable, a younger age
of epilepsy onset, related to higher DC scores (greater mathematical difficulties),
but was not significantly related in regression analyses. Instead, the WMQ explained
33% of the variance on the DC; the poorer storage and attention (but not executive)
on the WMQ were associated with the higher DC score, when demographic and epilepsy
variables were accounted for.
Significance
Adults with epilepsy reported significant difficulties with mathematics in daily life,
which were not explained by epilepsy variables but by poor working memory. While our
findings suggest that daily difficulties with mathematics may be comorbid with epilepsy
rather than epilepsy related, it is important to be cognizant of mathematical difficulties
experienced by patients with epilepsy as they have potential to impact understanding
of numerical information provided in patient care, such as risks associated with different
epilepsy treatments.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 26, 2022
Accepted:
November 12,
2022
Received in revised form:
October 17,
2022
Received:
July 28,
2022
Identification
Copyright
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