ArticleSeizure2021
Prevalence and mortality of epilepsies with convulsive and non-convulsive seizures in Kilifi, Kenya.
Article in Seizure, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mortality in patients with epilepsy: a systematic review.Journal of neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence, incidence, and trends of epilepsy among children and adolescents in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Artificial Intelligence for Improving the Management of People With Epilepsy in Low-and-Middle Income Countries.European journal of neurology · 2026Review
- The prevalence and determinants of epilepsy in Ghana: A population-based study in two districts using a three-stage approach.Epilepsia · 2026Article
- Modelling seizure-related predictors of epilepsy diagnostic gap in two urban informal settlements of Nairobi using machine learning.Global epidemiology · 2026Article
- Electroencephalogram Utilization, Epileptiform Findings, and Associated Factors Among Children with Epilepsy in Southwestern Uganda: A 5-Year Retrospective Record Review.Pediatric health, medicine and therapeutics · 2026Article
- Modeling the determinants of attrition in a two-stage epilepsy prevalence survey in Nairobi using machine learning.Global epidemiology · 2025Article
- Epilepsy in low- to middle-income countries.Current opinion in neurology · 2025Review
- Accounting for clustering for self-reported outcomes in the design and analysis of population-based surveys: A case study of estimation of prevalence of epilepsy in Nairobi, Kenya.Frontiers in research metrics and analytics · 2025Article
- Prevalence of all epilepsies in urban informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya: a two-stage population-based study.The Lancet. Global health · 2024Article
- Review of epilepsy care in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Epilepsia open · 2024Review
- The PRECISE-DYAD Neurodevelopmental substudy protocol: neurodevelopmental risk in children of mothers with pregnancy complications.Wellcome open research · 2023Article
- The ethical and validity conundrum in epilepsy research in LMIC settings.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesThe prevalence of all epilepsies (both convulsive and non-convulsive seizures) in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC), particularly sub-Saharan Africa is unknown. Under estimation of non-convulsive epilepsies in data from these countries may lead to inadequate and sub-optimal allocation of resources to control and prevent epilepsy. We determined the prevalence of all types of epilepsies and compared the mortality between convulsive seizures and non-convulsive seizures in a resource limited rural area in Kenya.
methodsTrained clinicians identified cases of epilepsy in a randomly selected sample of 4,441 residents in the Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System site using a cross-sectional survey design. Seizure types were classified by epileptologists using the current guidelines of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). We estimated prevalence for epilepsy with convulsive seizures and non-convulsive seizures and for epilepsy with non-convulsive seizures only and compared premature mortality between these groups of seizures.
resultsOf the 4441 people visited, 141 had lifetime epilepsy and 96 active epilepsy, which is a crude prevalence of 31.7/1,000 persons (95% CI: 26.6-36.9) and 21.6/1,000 (95% CI: 17.3-25.9), respectively. Both convulsive and non-convulsive seizures occurred in 7% people with epilepsy (PWE), only convulsive seizures in 52% and only non-convulsive seizures in 35% PWE; there was insufficient information to classify epilepsy in the remainder 6%. The age- and sex-adjusted prevalence of lifetime people was 23.5/1,000 (95% CI: 11.0-36.0), with the adjusted prevalence of epilepsy with non-convulsive seizures only estimated at 8.2/1,000 (95%CI:3.9-12.6). The mortality rate in PWE was 6.3/1,000 (95%CI: 3.4-11.8), compared to 2.8/1,000 (2.3-3.3) in those without epilepsy; hazard ratio (HR) =2.31 (1.22-4.39; p=0.011). The annual mortality rate was 11.2/1,000 (95%CI: 5.3-23.4) in PWE with convulsive and non-convulsive seizures and none died in PWE with non-convulsive seizures alone.
conclusionsOur study shows that epilepsy with non-convulsive seizures is common and adds to the prevalence of previously reported estimates of active convulsive epilepsy. Both epilepsy with convulsive seizures and that with non-convulsive seizures should be identified for optimising treatment and for planning resource allocation.
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