Pre-surgery expectations and post-surgery life-changing validation process.

This study aimed to validate two instruments that evaluate pre-surgery expectations and post-surgery life changes of people with epilepsy. The expectations questionnaire comprises 18 yes/no questions and the life changes questionnaire 25 yes/no questions, which includes the 18 questions of the expectations questionnaire plus seven negative questions, considering that the surgery could have a negative effect on the patient quality of life. There were also questions asking the patients to state if they consider the surgery to be a success or a failure, and about the frequency of seizures and their intensity. Patients were interviewed in three different phases: pre-surgery, post-surgery 1 (six months after surgery) and post-surgery 2 (12 months after surgery). The internal consistency of the instruments showed a general Kuder-Richardson coefficient of 0.855 (pre-surgery), 0.833 (post-surgery 1), 0.756 (post-surgery 2), showing that both instruments have a satisfactory content validity and high internal consistency. In this context, the answers obtained in this study are important because they represent the development of a complete set of categorical instruments to evaluate pre-surgery epilepsy expectations and post-surgery life changes.