Incidence and prevalence of epilepsy among older U.S. Medicare beneficiaries.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To determine the prevalence and incidence of epilepsy among U.S. Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years old and over, and to compare rates across demographic groups.

Methods

We performed a retrospective analysis of Medicare administrative claims for 2001-2005, defining prevalent cases as persons with ≥1 claim with diagnosis code 345.xx (epilepsy) or 2 or more with diagnosis code 780.3x (convulsion) ≥1 month apart, and incident cases as prevalent cases with 2 years immediately before diagnosis without such claims. Prevalence and incidence rates were calculated for the years 2003-2005 using denominators estimated from a 5% random sample of Medicare beneficiaries. Results were correlated with gender, age, and race.

Results

We identified 282,661 per year on averag

SUBMITTER: Faught E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3280050 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature