Prevalence of Epilepsy in Turkish Children Between the Ages of 0 and 16 Years

Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine the prevalence of epilepsy in Turkey among children between the ages of 0 and 16 years. The study population consisted of 24,773,569 children living in Turkey. Because the prevalence of childhood epilepsy is reported to be 0.001 to 1% in the literature, the sample size was determined as 48,260, with 0.05 error type I and 0.10 error type 2 (power 0.90), and the effect size was 2. With the cluster sampling method, samples were selected from cities, towns, districts, and villages, and 46,813 (97%) children were reached. The study questionnaire contained sections with individual informational questions and questions for the selection of suspected epilepsy cases and physical examination results. The epilepsy classification was designed according to the classification of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). The prevalence of epilepsy was determined as 0.8%; 55.2% of the subjects with epilepsy were grouped as generalized, 39% as partial, and 5.8% as unidentified. Age, place of residence, route of delivery, place of delivery, and social and economic status had no statistically significant effect on the development of epilepsy. Male gender, preterm, and post-term delivery increased the risk of developing epilepsy. Early diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy, as well as the education of health workers and families, are very important.

Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors of The Teachers Teaching at Primary Schools About Epilepsy

“…[6] Literatürde epilepsi hastalarının %90'ının ilk nöbetini 20 yaşından önce geçirdiği belirtilmektedir. [5,6,21,41] Çocukların zamanlarının büyük bir bölümünü okulda geçirdiği düşünüldüğünde, okulda bulunan idareci ve öğretmenlere büyük sorumluluklar düşmektedir. Ne yazık ki yapılmış araştırma sonuçlarında da görüldüğü gibi okullardaki öğretmenlerin epilepsi konusunda yeterince eğitilmedikleri görülmektedir.…”

Epilepsy in children in Navarre

“…Existen evidentes diferencias respecto a la etiología, localización y, en consecuencia, las frecuencias relativas de las distintas epilepsias y síndromes epilépticos, especialmente en lo relativo a las epilepsias catalogadas en categorías inespecíficas, tales como otras epilepsias no definidas previamente focales y/o generalizadas y las epilepsias de localización indeterminada sin datos inequívocos de crisis focales o generalizada 2,3,21,22,[25][26][27][28] . En este estudio, apenas un 7,7% de casos fueron catalogados como epilepsias en categorías inespecíficas: 8 casos (5,6%) de epilepsias generalizadas idiopáticas, 1 caso (0,7%) de epilepsia generalizada sintomática y 2 casos (1,4%) de localización indeterminada; sin embargo, otros autores refieren hasta un 8,6-14,7% de epilepsias de localización indeterminada sin datos inequívo-cos de crisis focales o generalizadas, así como elevadas proporciones de epilepsias sin clasificar y/o definir 2,12,17,22,25,26,28 .…”

“…La epilepsia es una de las patologías neurológicas más comunes en la población pediátrica, con una prevalencia activa de 3,4-11,3 casos por mil [1][2][3][4][5] . El diagnóstico de las epilepsias sigue siendo esencialmente clínico, aunque apoyado por pruebas complementarias cuyos avances técnicos (registro vídeo-EEG, estudios de neuroimagen estructural y/o funcional, análisis metabólicos, etc.)…”

Quality of Life and Cost analysis Following Epilepsy Surgery in Turkish Patients

“…[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] According to this, considering that approximately 700,000 epilepsy patients exist in Turkey, about 10% of this epilepsy population is surgery candidates. The benefits of epilepsy surgery in terms of seizure outcome and improvements in life quality are beyond controversy in well selected patient groups, especially in temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis.…”