Black patients are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy than white patients, despite the fact that black patients make up only 20% of the patient population in the Southeastern United States, according to a recent study.
- The University of Alabama at Birmingham reviewed all the video EEG diagnoses in its seizure monitoring unit from 2000 to 2011.
- Researchers performed a statistical analysis that included multivariate logistic regression to detect factors associated with the temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) diagnosis.
- The diagnoses in the entire patient population included 630 cases of TLE, 1150 cases of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures, 424 additional focal epilepsies, and 224 generalized epilepsies.
- The population included 77.3% white patients, 20% black patients, and 2.3% patients of other races.
- TLE was diagnosed far more often in black patients than white patients (odds ratio: 1.87).
There were more women in the study population, and black women were responsible for most of the statistical difference in TLE diagnoses.
Racial disparities in temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsy Res. 2017;16;140:56-60.
