Longitudinal Count Data Analysis of Factors Affecting Epileptic Seizure of Patients in Case of Gondar Referral Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Even though the world is fighting epileptic seizure disease in unity and patients are getting treatment, it continued to be a serious health issue for parts of the world and a large number of patients are being registered every year. The main objective of this study was to identify associated risk factors affecting the progression of patients in Gondar Referral Hospital. In this longitudinal count data analysis, data was collected from 337 epileptic seizure patients registered for treatment from January 1, 2016 to April 30, 2018 in the Hospital and Poisson, Poisson-gamma, Poisson-Normal and Poisson-Gamma-Normal models were applied to the data. Poisson-Gamma-Normal model with random intercept was selected as a best model to fit the data based on different model selection criteria. The findings of the study revealed that time, brain injury, treatment, interaction of time with residence and interaction of time with brain injury were significant factors for epileptic seizure of the patients. Minimization of epileptic seizure of patients in response to treatment was observed, which means the patients were at decreased epileptic seizure when enrolled for treatment. Therefore, patients should be encouraged to stay on treatment.