title: Essential tremor might be less frequent than Parkinson's disease in North Israel Arab villages.
abstract: Essential tremor (ET) is much more prevalent than Parkinson's disease (PD) in Western countries. We estimated ET and PD prevalence in Wadi Ara Arabic villages in Northern Israel. In this door-to-door survey, all consenting residents aged >or=65 years were systematically examined by an Arabic speaking team. No prescreening questionnaires were used. A random sample of 900 subjects [437 males, mean age (SD) = 72.6 years (6.6)] of the 2,163 eligible residents were evaluated. Sixteen subjects had an action, intentional tremor. Tremor prevalence was estimated as 1.78% (95% CI 1.1-2.87). Nine of these had another likely cause of tremor. Only 7 patients were diagnosed as ET [prevalence 0.78% (95% CI 0.38-1.6)]. PD was diagnosed in 13 subjects. PD prevalence was 1.44% (95% CI 0.84-2.45). ET is unusually uncommon in this population and possibly even less frequent than PD. The PD prevalence in Wadi Ara is similar to that reported in Western countries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and The Sagol Neuroscience Center, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Glik
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Masarwa
authors.forename: Amin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abuful
authors.forename: Amar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deeb
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Strugatsky
authors.forename: Lindsay A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Farrer
authors.forename: Robert P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Friedland
authors.forename: Rivka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Inzelberg
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018912:Arabs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology*; D015995:Prevalence; D014202:Tremor / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology*