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Meta-Analysis
. 2021 Apr 10:11:04028.
doi: 10.7189/jogh.11.04028.

The global prevalence of essential tremor, with emphasis on age and sex: A meta-analysis

Peige Song  1   2 , Yan Zhang  3 , Mingming Zha  4 , Qingwen Yang  4 , Xinxin Ye  1 , Qian Yi  1 , Igor Rudan  5 ; Global Health Epidemiology Reference Group (GHERG)
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

The global prevalence of essential tremor, with emphasis on age and sex: A meta-analysis

Peige Song et al. J Glob Health. .

Abstract

Background: Essential tremor (ET) is one of the most common neurological disorders that impairs quality of life and leads to disability and social handicap. It was estimated that approximate 0.9% of people worldwide were affected by ET. The last decade has seen new investigations on the epidemiology of ET, enabling us to provide an up-to-date estimation of ET prevalence, with emphasis on age and sex.

Methods: We searched PubMed, Medline, Embase and Global Health for studies that reported the prevalence of ET in the general population. Potential sources of heterogeneity were examined by age-adjusted meta-regression. The age- and sex-specific prevalence of ET was constructed with a multilevel mixed-effects meta-regression.

Results: A total of 29 articles were included in our systematic review and meta-analysis. The prevalence of ET increased dramatically with advancing age, where the prevalence estimate in people aged under 20 years was 0.04% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.00-0.29) and that in elderly aged 80 years and above was 2.87% (95% CI = 1.07-7.49). ET was consistently more common in males than in females. In 2020, the overall prevalence of ET in the general population was 0.32% (95% CI = 0.12-0.91), and the prevalence was higher in males (0.36%, 95% CI = 0.14-1.03) than in females (0.28%, 95% CI = 0.11-0.79). In 2020, the number of people affected by ET was 24.91million (95% CI = 9.51-70.92), among whom 56% were males.

Conclusions: This study provides an up-to-date estimation of ET prevalence in the general population throughout the whole life span, with emphasis on age and sex. The adoption of an internationally acknowledged diagnostic strategy is prompted in future epidemiological investigations.

Protocol registration: PROSPERO (CRD42020203979).

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: IR is co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Global Health. To ensure that any possible conflict of interest relevant to the journal has been addressed, this article was reviewed according to best practice guidelines of international editorial organisations. The author completed the ICMJE Unified Competing Interest form (available on request from the corresponding author). The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of study selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Age- and sex-specific prevalence of essential tremor based on available data points from the included articles, with 95% confidence intervals (CI).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Estimated prevalence and cases of essential tremor in 2020, by age group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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