The Diagnostic Accuracy Study of Epilepsy Screening Test and Prevalence of Adult Epilepsy

Orawan Silpakit MD*

Affiliation : * Srithanya Hospital, Nonthaburi, Thailand

Objective : To validate the Srithanya screening test for epilepsy (SST) in the community setting and to study the point prevalence of active epilepsy in adult. Material and Method: The cross-sectional study was done in the Klong Pra-u-dom Sub-district in the central part of Thailand. Three-step-approach was designed. The first step was a door-to-door surveyed by 15 community health volunteers (CHVs). People that were 15 years and older were interviewed using the SST and the Anand questionnaires. Secondly, possible cases were interviewed by the sub-head nurse of the health promoting hospital using the second questionnaire. Finally, suspected cases were examined neurologically. Sensitivity and specificity of the SST and the Anand’s questionnaires were analyzed by receiving operating characteristic curve (ROC).
Results : Two thousand eighty one cases were interviewed by CHVs and 166 possible cases of epilepsy were identified. Of these, there were eight suspected cases, and five confirmed cases as true epilepsy. The point prevalence of active epilepsy was 2.4: 1,000. For the short form of SST, a cut-off score of 4 was selected, sensitivity was 100 (48 to 100), and specificity was 99.9 (99.6 to 100).
Conclusion : The short form of Srithanya screening test for epilepsy was validated in the community setting. This questionnaire was easy for health volunteers to screen people with suspected epilepsy after a half day training program. The point prevalence of active epilepsy was 2.4 per 1,000.

Keywords : Community, Epilepsy, Prevalence, Screening

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