Frequency and characteristics of febrile convulsions among children in Belbeis family health center.

Boshra, Nancy; Ragab, Hosnia; Shedeed, Soad Abd Elsalam; Said, Hanaa Salah

doi:10.21608/zumj.2019.15278.1370

Frequency and characteristics of febrile convulsions among children in Belbeis family health center.

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ family medicine department, faculty of medicine, zagazig university, Egypt.

² Professor and Head of Community, Environmental and Occupational Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt.

³ Professor of Pediatric Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt.

⁴ Lecturer of Family Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt.

10.21608/zumj.2019.15278.1370

Abstract

Background: Febrile convulsion (FC) is the most common neurologic disorder in childhood. It is a major challenge in pediatric and family practice because of its high incidence in young children and its tendency to recur. Objective: To determine the frequency and characteristics of febrile convulsions among children attending Belbeis family health center. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 272 children aged (6months up to 5 years) in Belbeis Family Health Center from April to July 2019, using a predesigned questionnaire to assess the sociodemographic characteristics and structured one to assess the attack characteristics. The sample units were collected by the cluster technique. Results: Frequency of febrile convulsions among the studied children was 8.8%. Most of them had only a single attack; the initial episode was in age younger than 1 year, most of studied (90.6%) family had a negative history of FC among siblings, duration of the FC attack ≤ 5 minutes in 65% of them, and cyanosis occurred during the attack only in 18% of them. There is no significant difference between children with febrile convulsions and children without febrile convulsions regarding age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Conclusion: FC had a high incidence in young children and it also tended to recur, so it represents a major challenge in pediatrics and family medicine practice. We recommend that similar studies on a larger sample of children at different areas of care like inpatient, ED and primary health units should be carried out.

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