Prevalence of epilepsy and associated health service utilization and mortality among patients with intellectual disability

Abstract

We considered the prevalence of epilepsy and associated health service utilization for a population with intellectual disability. Registers for epilepsy and intellectual disability were created using a range of datasets. Of 1,595 people with an intellectual disability, 257 (16.1%) had epilepsy. Standardized activity ratios were 3.07 (95% CI 3.00 to 3.15), 2.03 (95% CI 1.94 to 2.11), and 3.09 (95% CI 2.78 to 3.41) for inpatients, outpatients, and accident and emergency, respectively. After excluding epilepsy-related inpatient admissions, we found the standardized activity ratio was 2.55 (2.48 to 2.62). Institutionalized patients were less likely to be admitted than were those in the community (standardized activity ratio = 0.63 (95% CI 0.54 to 0.73). Patients with intellectual disability and co-existing epilepsy used secondary care services more frequently than did those with intellectual disability only.