Potential Factors Associated with Epilepsy among Epileptic Patients Attending Middle Euphrates Neurosciences Center - Al-Najaf City.

Abstract

Objective: To identify the some factors associated with epilepsy. A Case-control study was carried out at Middle Euphrates Neurosciences Center in An-Najaf City- Iraq, the study was conducted from mid of October 2016 until mid of March 2017. Participants recruited in the study were selected as conveniently, (74) of them were already diagnosed by neurologist as epileptics patients and considered as cases, while (140) were non-epileptic from same setting considered as control group. instrument structured for this purpose, data collection was done using pretested questionnaire which consist of two parts, first one included: biographical data (age, gender, marital status, level of education, occupation, and resident). The cases and control groups are age and sex matched. Epileptic patients had a significantly low level of education (Not read and write) 34.4% as compared to healthy control group 13,3% this difference is statistically significant p<0.05 the Odds Ratio (OR) was 2.1.,the following possible risk factors were significantly associated with epilepsy in this study; unemployment OR= 2.7 , positive family history OR=1.8, central nervous system lesions OR= 4.3 and natal defects OR=8.3.