title: Epilepsy prevalence in Al-Manial Island, Egypt. A door-to-door survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Epidemiologic studies of epilepsy are lacking from the majority of the Arab countries; although there are significant needs for such studies. This study was conducted on a sample of Al-Manial Island, Cairo city, one of the highest cities in population density in the world.
  
  
  METHODS
  A community-based, door to door, cross-sectional study using multistage random sample including 512 families (1751 individuals). The study extended from March 2009 to September 2012 and involved three main stages; the preparatory stage, the field work stage and the stage of establishing epilepsy diagnosis and classifying confirmed epileptic patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The lifetime point prevalence of epilepsy among inhabitants of Al-Manial island was 6.9/1000 inhabitants while the prevalence of active epilepsy was 5.1/1000 inhabitants. The age distribution showed bimodal peaks in adolescents and in elderly with equal sex ratio (6/855 vs 6/896). Focal seizures were the commonest type (58.3%) and the treatment gap was 66.7%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of epilepsy among inhabitants of Al-Manial Island go in agreement with most global studies. High treatment gap detected in our study indicates that proper management of epilepsy requires a multi-factorial approach.
authors.affiliation: MD Neurology, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. Electronic address: saherhashem@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Saher
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hashem
authors.affiliation: MD Neurology, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. Electronic address: Mkattan60@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Manal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Al-Kattan
authors.affiliation: MD Community Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. Electronic address: Yassins1966@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Sahar Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Ibrahim
authors.affiliation: MD Neurology, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. Electronic address: nevinmohy@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Nevin M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Shalaby
authors.affiliation: MD Neurology, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. Electronic address: rehamneuro2@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Reham M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Shamloul
authors.affiliation: MD Neurology, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. Electronic address: mohammadfarrag@kasralainy.edu.eg.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Farrag
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004534:Egypt / Q000453:epidemiology; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Door to door survey; Egypt; Epidemiology; Epilepsy prevalence