Extending neurologic services to rural children

The University of Kentucky provides neurologic services to rural children by a traveling clinic. In 1978, 438 children (including 231 new patients) made 646 clinic visits. The primary diagnoses were appropriate for a neurology clinic; epilepsy was the most common (74 of 231) among new patients. A community survey of school-age children found the clinic serving 45 percent of "active epileptics." Clinic patients had a higher seizure frequency and came from a more disadvantaged background that nonclinic patients. These data show that an urban-based traveling clinic can identify and care for rural children with neurologic disorders.