Prevalence of epilepsy in a migrant population near Quito, Ecuador.
A census, uniform screening questionnaire and simple screening neurologic examination were administered door to door to the 221 residents of Paluguillo, a rural migrant community near Quito, Ecuador. This protocol was pretested to assure a high level of sensitivity for detecting major neurologic diseases in both children and adults. Of the participants, 119 (54%) had responses or findings suggesting the presence of neurologic disease, and, in particular, 53 (24%) had responses suggestive of epilepsy. These individuals were then examined by neurologists using fixed diagnostic criteria. The prevalence ratio for epilepsy was found to be 22.6/1,000. The results of this survey support the conclusion that epilepsy has a higher prevalence in rural areas of socioeconomically deprived countries than it does in industrialized nations.
Basch
E M
EM
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., USA.
Cruz
M E
ME
Tapia
D
D
Cruz
A
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003906:Developing Countries; D004484:Ecuador / Q000453:epidemiology; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012424:Rural Population; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires