Case-control studies on the relationship between onchocerciasis and epilepsy: systematic review and meta-analysis

A systematic review and meta-analysis of all available case-control studies on the relationship between onchocerciasis and epilepsy. Because age and level of onchocerciasis endemicity in the area of residence are major determinants for infection, an additional analysis was performed, restricted to s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS neglected tropical diseases 2013-03, Vol.7 (3), p.e2147-e2147
Main Authors: Kaiser, Christoph, Pion, Sébastien D S, Boussinesq, Michel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Age
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Animals
Care and treatment
Case-Control Studies
Child
Child, Preschool
Confidence intervals
Diagnosis
Epilepsy
Epilepsy - epidemiology
Epilepsy - etiology
Female
Humans
Hypotheses
Infections
Male
Medicine
Meta-analysis
Middle Aged
Onchocerca volvulus - pathogenicity
Onchocerciasis
Onchocerciasis - complications
Parasites
Parasitic diseases
Public health
Skin
Statistics
Young Adult
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Summary:A systematic review and meta-analysis of all available case-control studies on the relationship between onchocerciasis and epilepsy. Because age and level of onchocerciasis endemicity in the area of residence are major determinants for infection, an additional analysis was performed, restricted to studies achieving control of these confounding factors. Medical databases, the "African Neurology Database, Institute of Neuroepidemiology and Tropical Neurology, Limoges," reference lists of relevant articles, commercial search engines, up to May 2012. We searched for studies examining infection status with Onchocerca volvulus in persons with epilepsy (PWE) and without epilepsy (PWOE) providing data suitable for the calculation of pooled odds ratios (ORp) and/or standardized mean differences (SMD) using random-effects models. Eleven studies providing data of qualitative skin biopsies for diagnosis of onchocerciasis were identified. Combined analysis on the total sample of 876 PWE and 4712 PWOE resulted in an ORp of 2.49 (95% confidence interval (95%CI): 1.61-3.86, p
ISSN:1935-2735
1935-2727
1935-2735
DOI:10.1371/journal.pntd.0002147