A Community Survey of Neurological Disorders in Saudi Arabia: The Thugbah Study

作者：S. Al Rajeh, O. Bademosi, H. Ismail, Adnan A. Awada, Adekunle H. Dawodu, Hussein M. Al-Freihi, Suleiman A. Assuhaimi, M. Borollosi, S. Al-Shammasi · 发表于：Neuroepidemiology · 年份：1993 · DOI：10.1159/000110316 · 被引用次数：215 · 研究领域：Hemoglobinopathies and Related Disorders、Epilepsy research and treatment、Genomics and Rare Diseases

We report the findings of a total population survey of Thugbah community in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia (SA) to determine its point prevalence of neurological diseases. During this two-phase door-to-door study, all Saudi nationals living in Thugbah were first screened by trained interviewers using a pretested questionnaire (sensitivity 98%, specificity 89%) administered at a face-to-face interview. Individuals with abnormal responses were then evaluated by a neurologist using specific guidelines and defined diagnostic criteria to document neurological disease. The questionnaire was readministered blind by a neurologist to all those with abnormal responses and a 1-in-20 random sample of those without abnormal responses, respectively. The family members of an individual with an abnormal response were also screened to improve accuracy. A total of 23,227 Saudis (98% of the eligible subjects) were screened and those residing in Thugbah on the reference date (22,630) were used to calculate the point prevalence rates. Forty-two percent of those screened were in the first decade of life and only 1.5% were more than 60 years old. There were marginally more females (50.2%) than males (49.8%). Consanguineous marriages especially between first cousins were present in 54.6%. The demographic characteristics of Thugbah community were similar to those in other parts of SA. The overall crude prevalence ratio (PR) for all forms of neurological disease was 131/1,000 population. All sub...