ArticleBMC medicine2018
Prevalence, risk factors and behavioural and emotional comorbidity of acute seizures in young Kenyan children: a population-based study.
Article in BMC medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Burden of Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Kenyan Children.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Screening young children for neurodevelopmental differences in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Article
- Latent profile analysis of perceived vulnerability among parents of children with febrile seizures.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Article
- Joint effect of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index and folic acid supplements on gestational diabetes mellitus risk: a prospective cohort study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Article
- Behavioural and emotional comorbidities in school-aged children with neurological conditions in Kilifi, Kenya, and their long-term consequences.Global health action · 2022Article
- Neurological impairment and disability in children in rural Kenya.Developmental medicine and child neurology · 2022Article
- Gazing the dusty mirror: Joint effect of narcissism and sadism on workplace incivilityFrontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- The Relationship Between Sleep, Cognition and Behavior in Children With Newly-Diagnosed Epilepsy Over 36 Months.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Article
- Prevalence and mortality of epilepsies with convulsive and non-convulsive seizures in Kilifi, Kenya.Seizure · 2021Article
- The Pathogenesis of Fever-Induced Febrile Seizures and Its Current State.Neuroscience insights · 2020Review
- Epilepsy diagnosis and management of children in Kenya: review of current literature.Research and reports in tropical medicine · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAcute symptomatic seizures and febrile seizures are common in children admitted to hospitals in Africa and may be markers of brain dysfunction. They may be associated with behavioural and emotional problems, but there are no published community-based studies in Africa.
methodsWe screened 7047 children aged 1-6 years (randomly sampled from 50,000 in the community) for seizures (using seven questions) and invited those who screened positive and a proportion of negatives for a clinical assessment. Risk factors were identified using a parental questionnaire. Behavioural and emotional problems were examined using the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) in 3273 children randomly selected from 7047. Generalised linear models with appropriate link functions were used to determine risk factors and associations between behavioural or emotional problems and acute seizures. Sobel-Goodman mediation tests were used to investigate if the association between acute seizures and CBCL scores was mediated by co-diagnosis of epilepsy.
resultsAcute seizures were identified in 429 (6.1%) preschool children: 3.2% (95% confidence interval CI: 2.9-3.5%) for symptomatic seizures, and 2.9% (95% CI: 2.6-3.3%) for febrile seizures. Risk factors for acute seizures included family history of febrile seizures (odds ratio OR = 3.19; 95% CI: 2.03-5.01) and previous hospitalisation (OR = 6.65; 95% CI: 4.60-9.63). Total CBCL problems occurred more frequently in children with acute seizures (27%; 95% CI: 21-34%) than for those without seizures (11%; 95% CI: 11-12%; chi-squared p ≤ 0.001). Acute seizures were associated with total CBCL problems (adjusted risk ratio (aRR) = 1.92; 95% CI: 1.34-2.77), externalising problems (aRR = 1.82; 95% CI: 1.21-2.75) and internalising problems (aRR = 1.57; 95% CI: 1.22-2.02), with the proportion of the comorbidity mediated by a co-diagnosis of epilepsy being small (15.3%; 95% CI: 4.5-34.9%). Risk factors for this comorbidity included family history of febrile seizures (risk ratio (RR) = 3.36; 95% CI: 1.34-8.41), repetitive acute seizures (β = 0.36; 95% CI: 0.15-0.57) and focal acute seizures (RR = 1.80; 95% CI: 1.05-3.08).
conclusionsAcute seizures are common in preschool children in this area and are associated with behavioural and emotional problems. Both conditions should be assessed and addressed in children.
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