Spatio-temporal analysis of epilepsy hospitalizations in children

*Correspondence: [e-mail].

Abstract

Background: Epilepsy is the most prevalent chronic neurological disease in the world, with clinical features of recurrent seizures due to excessive and abnormal discharges, resulting in sensory, motor, and behavioral agitation. In childhood, many of its causes have genetic, metabolic, or structural etiology, being secondary to encephalopathies, infections of the nervous system, and traumatic brain injury.

Objective: To carry out an analysis of temporal and spatial variation in the number of hospitalizations due to epilepsy in pediatric patients.

Methods: This is a quantitative ecological study, with a temporal analysis between the years 2018 to 2022 on cases of hospitalization for epilepsy in children in Brazil. Secondary data was used from the Hospital Morbidity database of the SUS (SIH/SUS). The following variables were collected: the number of hospitalizations, sex, age group, region of notification, and color/race. Descriptive and statistical analyzes were performed. To assess the association between exposure and variables, relative risk (RR) values with a 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated.

Results: A total of 110,219 cases of hospitalization for epilepsy among children between the years 2018 and 2022 were analyzed. In terms of regions, the Southeast region had the highest occurrence of hospitalizations (N=37487/34.01%) and presented a risk of 1. 56 (95%CI: 1.54-1.59), followed by the Northeast region (N=32729/29.69%) with a relative risk of 1.41 (95%CI: 1.39-1.43). As for the age groups of children, the highest hospitalization rates in pediatric patients are present between 1 and 4 years old (46803/42.46%) with an exposure risk of 1.90 (95%CI: 1.88-1.93) and in patients between 5 and 9 years old (N=25754/23.36%) with risk of 1.21 (95%CI: 1.19-1.23). As for the gender of the patients, it was noticeable that males obtained higher values (N=60985/55.33%) compared to females (N=49234/44.66%), with a risk of male exposure of 1.15 (95%CI: 1.14-1.16). Regarding color/race, a greater number of brown pediatric patients was observed compared to the others (N=51775/46.97%). However, many cases were not reported (N=22759/20.64%). Given this, it is possible to state that the profile of pediatric epilepsy patients predominantly is in the preschool age group, male, mixed race, and residents of the Southeast region.

Conclusion: In this scenario, the analysis of exposure factors in this population is necessary, in addition to better information on reported cases.

 

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Publication History

Article published online:
12 May 2025