Abstract
Reliable data concerning the epidemiology of epilepsy are hard to find. Although childhood epilepsy is a major medical and social problem, its extent is yet obscure. The study was undertaken in Okayama Prefecture, on December 31, 1975 as the prevalence day. Those studied were all children under 10 years of age. The list of epileptic patients was collected from hospital records. A total of 56 hospitals and institutions in and around Okayama Prefecture, including Okayama University Hospital, were throughly surveyed. The subjects were confined to cases with active seizure disorders under medical treatment.
Definition of Epilepsy; One or more attacks of the cerebral origin with convulsions, disturbance of consciousness, autonomic symptoms, disturbance of sensory of perception or automatism.
Excluding: 1) Non-epileptic febrile convulsions, 2) Neonatal convulsions, 3) Acute convulsions due to encephalitis or meningitis, 4) Convulsions due to head trauma during the first one week.
The results were as follows:
1) On the prevalence day, 2, 378 epileptic children were identified by this methods. Therefore, the prevalence rate for epilepsy was 8.2 per 1, 000. The lowest prevalence rate was 1.2 in children under one year of age, and the highest was 11.0 at five years of age. The rate was higher for males than females.
2) The annual incidence rate for epilepsy was estimated at 145.0 per 100, 000 for 1975.
3) The onset of seizures was high in the first three years, totaling 1, 795 cases (77.7%), and this decreased after four years of age.
4) Primary generalized epilepsy was found in 744 cases (31.7%), secondary generalized epilepsy in 167 (9.2%), partial epilepsy with elementary symptomatology in 205 (11.3%), with complex symptomatology in 61 (3.3%), and partial seizures secondarily generalized in 766 (42.6%).
