The incidence of epilepsy in a rural district of Vietnam: a community-based epidemiologic study

Epidemiologic studies of epilepsy from developing countries are scarce. As part of a population-based epidemiologic project in Vietnam, EPIBAVI, we studied the incidence and etiology of epilepsy in people in a representative rural region of the country.

Two identical field surveys were carried out 3 years apart (January to December 2005, and June to December 2008) in the same population of the Bavi District in Vietnam. On both occasions, close to 50,000 members of approximately 13,000 households were screened using a questionnaire for epilepsy. A clinical examination of all screened positive was performed by a neurologist to verify the epilepsy diagnosis, and all incident cases were offered EEG and a CT scan.

In the first survey 2.8% screened positive according to the questionnaire. Of these, 19 had epilepsy onset within 1 year preceding the screening, yielding an incidence rate of 40.2 per 100,000 [95% confidence interval (CI) 22.1-58.3]. In the second survey 1.8% were screened positive, and 21 of these had epilepsy onset within 1 year preceding the screening, giving an incidence rate of 42.9 per 100,000 (95% CI 24.5-61.2). The age-adjusted incidence was 44.8 per 100,000 (95% CI 30.6-59.0). The incidence was higher in those younger than 16 years, among people with lower education, and among people with lower income. CT scan was performed in 29 cases and only two cases were found with some abnormalities.

The incidence rate of epilepsy in rural Vietnam in our study was lower than in developing countries in Latin America and Africa and similar to rates in Europe and North America.