Abstract
Background: Several specialist clinic-based epidemiology studies suggested low prevalence in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China. Population-based epidemiological data for epilepsy is not available. We performed the first population-based epidemiological survey of epilepsy in this locality. Method: We conducted a territory-wide survey. We randomly selected 9547 households from fixed-line telephone directory. We successfully surveyed 17,783 persons of 5178 households by telephone interview. All positive respondents 685 (3.85%) were invited for clinical validation. 127 subjects were validated by board-certified neurologists. Results: Seizure disorders were confirmed in 28 subjects. The crude prevalence of active epilepsy and seizure disorder were estimated to be 3.94/1000 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.10-6.74/1000) and 8.49/1000 (95% CI: 5.64-12.27/1000), respectively. Conclusions: The prevalence of epilepsy in HKSAR is more common than previously thought. The data retrieved is useful for planning and allocation of health resources for patients with seizure disorders.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 457-464 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Seizure |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2008 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Epidemiology
- Epilepsy
- Hong Kong
- Population-based
- Prevalence