Prevalence of epilepsy in a Brazilian semiurban region: an epidemiological study

Abstract

Objective World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 8/1.000 individuals worldwide suffer from epilepsy, and prevalence in developing countries is usually higher than that in developed countries. According to the United Nations Program for Development in the Human Development Report 2013, Brazil ranks 85th in the Human Development Index (HDI) with a course of “high performance” in human development over the past decades, indicating that the country was able to increase the national income and indicators of health and education were recorded as higher than average. This study aimed to describe prevalence of epilepsy in a Brazilian region of Mato Grosso.
Methods A door-to-door survey was conducted in Barra do Bugres in 2011. In phase 1, health agents screened participants using Limoges questionnaire was used to identify patients with epilepsy in tropical regions, and in phase 2, neurological evaluation was performed on the detected cases.
Results Of the 30,132 subjects who were screened, 305 were deemed positive and were advanced to phase 2 evaluation. Epilepsy was diagnosed in 241 subjects (76 children and 165 adults), prevalence of epilepsy was 7.8/1000 inhabitants, and the overall prevalence rate of active epilepsy was 5.6/1000 inhabitants. In this study, 55.9% were male, 68.7% were afro-descendant ethnicity and 24.4% were illiterates.
Conclusion The present study is the first conducted in a semiurban region of Brazil using a population survey to evaluate epilepsy prevalence rates. These findings suggested that the association between improvements in health conditions and education are important factors for low epilepsy prevalence rates.