Relationship between Socio-Demographic Indices and CT-diagnosed Aetiologies of Seizure in Katsina State, Nigeria

Background: Seizure disorder is a global health concern which tends to be influenced by social and demographic factors. Objectives: This study assessed the influence of these factors on the various seizure aetiologies seen on a brain CT. Methods: Ethical clearance was obtained from the Federal Teaching Hospital Katsina and then the retrospective study of 442 brain CT images with positive findings of seizure aetiologies from December 2019 to August 2021 was performed. The socio-demographic parameters of the patients were retrieved from the patients’ records. Results: The seizure aetiologies that dominated the study were ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, cerebral atrophy, skull fracture and traumatic brain injury with 81 (18 %), 60 (14 %), 55 (12 %), 41 (9 %) and 43 (10 %) respectively. The first decade of life recorded the highest frequency of seizure aetiologies, there was a decline in the second decade and then the frequency of etiologies increased with the increase in age. There was male gender preponderance with 65%. The Hausa ethnic group dominated the study with 93% of the total subjects. The frequency distributions of urban and rural dwellers were 60% and 40% respectively. Twenty per cent of the total subjects were housewives with stroke comprising 52% of their seizure aetiologies. Conclusion: Chi-square (at 95% CI) showed that there was a statistically significant dependence between the frequencies of brain CTdiagnosed seizure aetiologies with age, gender and occupation but not geographical location. Due to the high frequency of stroke, it is recommended that special attention should be given, especially among housewives.