Epilepsy is a concealable stigmatizing condition. We investigated the factors predicting disclosure management behavior in Korean adults with newly diagnosed epilepsy.This longitudinal multicenter study included Korean adults with newly diagnosed epilepsy. Using statistical analyses, we determined at the end of a 1-year follow-up whether Disclosure Management Scale (DMS) scores were predicted by demographic, clinical, and psychosocial variables, including felt stigma, stress coping style, personality traits, social support, and experienced discrimination from society.Of a total of 121 participants, 69% reported that they often or sometimes kept their diagnosis a secret from others and rarely or never talked to others about their epilepsy. The average DMS score was 5.8 (SD=2.9, range 0-11). In univariate analyses, DMS scores were significantly associated with an emotion-focused coping style (r=0.320, p0.001), social support (r=-0.185, p0.05), and experienced discrimination (p0.05). Emotion-focused coping was the only independent predictor of a higher DMS score. Felt stigma, personality traits, and seizure freedom were not related to the DMS score.Two-thirds of Korean adults with newly diagnosed epilepsy often or sometimes keep their epilepsy a secret. Emotion-focused coping is the most important predictor of concealment of epilepsy diagnosis at the end of a 1-year follow-up, although social support and episodes of experienced discrimination are also associated with disclosure management strategies.
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