Prevalence of epilepsy in school-going children (6-18 years) in Kashmir Valley of North-west India.

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder which predominantly affects paediatric and young adolescent population. The aim of present study was to evaluate the prevalence of epilepsy in school-going children (6-18 years) in Kashmir valley. Forty-nine cases of epilepsy were detected after screening 15218 school-going children. It included 55.1% (prevalence of 3.74/1000) males and 44.9% (prevalence of 3.13/1000) females. Rural-urban specification revealed a prevalence of 3.49/1000 and 2.96/1000 respectively. Age-specific prevalence was found to be 3.82/1000 (6-10 years), 3.44/1000 (11-14 years) and 2.33/1000 (15-18 years). Highest prevalence of epilepsy was found in upper lower class (prevalence of 3.89/1000) and lowest in lower middle class (prevalence of 2.78/1000). Again, higher prevalence (3.38/1000) was observed in children from government run educational institutions. Generalised tonic-clonic seizures (73.5%) was the commonest type of seizure observed.