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Increased driving accident frequency in Danish patients with epilepsy
1Traffic Lab and Accident Analysis Group, Odense University Hospital, Denmark. s.lings@ouh.dh
Objective:
To determine driving accident frequency in a cohort of patients with epilepsy.
Methods:
A 10-year historical cohort register study of 159 subjects with epilepsy and 559 controls individually matched for age, gender, place of residence, and exposure period was carried out. All had nonprofessional driver's licenses without restrictions. Persons with recorded diagnoses of other neurologic diseases, diabetes, psychoses, seizures, abuse, or poisoning of any kind were not included. The outcome measure was treatment at the casualty department after an accident as a car driver.
Results:
Ten patients with epilepsy and five controls had been treated at the casualty department, the rate per 1,000 person-years with exposure being seven times higher (CI 2.18 to 26.13) in those with epilepsy than in the control cohort.
Conclusions:
Drivers with epilepsy are more likely than healthy controls to be treated at a casualty department after having a motor vehicle accident.