The investigation of prevalence of among school children between age 7-17 in İzmir province

08.SUMMARY Objective: The purpose of this study was to find the epilepsy prevalence among school children between age 7 - 17 in Izmir Province. Methods: There are 420,054 students in 281 primary schools and 162 high schools located in Izmir Metropolitan area. Sample size is calculated as 4.654. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select the schools and 13 primary and 10 high schools were selected. A questionnaire which consisted of 32 questions was prepared by using Guidelines for Epidemiologic Studies which is proposed by The Commission on Epidemiology and Prognosis, International League Against Epilepsy in 1993. Questionnaire was given to the families by school administrations, and collected within 3 days. For the 130 (3.8%) students whose families gave positive "epilepsy history" telephone interview was conducted in order to verify the diagnosis and evaluation of risk factors. In order to calculate age specific and age adjusted prevalence rates, 1999 Household Survey data of Izmir Province Health Department, 1990 and 1997 Census data were used to estimate population between age 7-17 in Izmir. For analysis SPSS 8.0 software was used. Differences between groups were statistically tested using chi-square and logistic regression was used for further evaluation of risk factors. Results: Response rate was 89.7% (4216 questionnaire). Addresses of 130 students, whose families gave positive epilepsy history, were reached by "school administrations". 47 (36.2%) out of 130 were diagnosed and / or registered in a follow-up program for epilepsy by a neurology clinic, at the time of study. Crude prevalence rates for females, males and total study population were found respectively as 11.3 per thousand, 11.1 per thousand and 11.2 per thousand. Prevalence of active epilepsy rates for females, males and total study population were found respectively as 4.5 per thousand, 7.0 per thousand and 5.6 per thousand. Age adjusted epilepsy prevalence rates for females, males and total study population 44were found respectively as 10.0 per thousand, 15.2 per thousand and 12.6 per thousand. Among epileptic children %17 gave positive epilepsy history for their relatives; %17 had consanguineous marriage among their parents; %25 had positive febril seizures history and %39 accepted as secondary epilepsy. It was found that children of families with a monthly income of 100 million TL and below has 4.9 times risk (p=0.0014) for epilepsy than better income groups. Children of fathers whose literacy level is primary school or under has 1.8 times risk (p=0.0313) than higher education groups. Conclusion: Epilepsy prevalence rates that were found in this study for age group of 7 - 17 in Izmir Province is close to the rates of developed countries, epilepsy still is an important health problem. It was found mat socioeconomic status and education are important risk factors for epilepsy, and also preventable risk factors such as febrile seizures still have important risk factors in the etiology of epilepsy. Key words -.School-children, epilepsy, prevalance 45