Effects of ketogenic diet therapy in outpatient anti epileptic drug cost reduction and parental satisfaction among children with intractable epilepsy.

INTRODUCTION

Epilepsy is a global neurological disorder that contributes to a significant disease burden in children and adolescents. About 11 million children worldwide suffer from epilepsy. Most children with epilepsy respond to anti-epileptic drugs and have controlled symptoms. However, drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) happens in some children which presents a lot of challenges to their quality of life and development. Alternative treatment for DRE is ketogenic diet therapy (KDT) which is also given alongside the regiment.

METHODS

This study aims to compare the prescribed anti-epileptic drug cost of patients receiving KDT compared to the initial pre-diet cost. This study was a descriptive analytical retrospective using outpatient medical records in Dr.Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM Kiara) from 2021 to 2022. Subjects were patients with drug-resistant epilepsy and underwent a ketogenic diet up to 6 months and aged between 5-18 years old. These patients were then evaluated for their anti epileptic drug costs before starting and after they did a ketogenic diet for up to 6 months with cost evaluation at 3 months interval. The cost of prescribed outpatient antiepileptic drugs were adjusted according to prices set by the Indonesian Ministry of Health. Parents of participants were also surveyed about their satisfaction with KDT using Google Form questionnaire with consent prior to survey.

RESULTS

In this study, a comparison between the overall cost of incorporating KDT for 6 months and pre-diet treatment plan was found to have a statistically significant cost reduction for the incorporation of KDT which demonstrated 21.8% overall reduction in outpatient anti epileptic drug costs among 16 patients which was found to be Rp 3,757,812 or 235 US$ (p = < 0.001).

DISCUSSION: This study demonstrated that incorporating KDT for 6 months provides significant financial savings in treatment cost for children with drug-resistant epilepsy.