HEALTH SCIENCE JOURNAL ® Volume 6, Issue 3 (July – September 2012) Page | 509 E-ISSN: 1791-809X Health Science Journal © All rights reserved www.hsj.gr _ORIGINAL ARTICLE_ Risk factors associated with Epilepsy: A case-control study Athanassios Vozikis 1 , John E. Goulionis 2 , Dimitrios Nikolakis 3 1.MSc, PhD, Lecturer, University of Piraeus, Economics Dept. 2.PhD, Researcher, University of Piraeus, Department of Statistics and Insurance Science 3. MSc, Researcher, University of Piraeus, Department of Statistics and Insurance Science ABSTRACT Background: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological condition and the world’s common serious brain disorder. The aim of this case-control study is to identify the significance of certain risk factors for epilepsy. The risk factors examined are age, head trauma, central nervous system infections e.g. meningitis, abnormal perinatal history, family history, socioeconomic status and parental consanguinity. Methods: We designed a case-control study for 700 patients (512 males and 188 females) attending the outpatient neurology clinic of a University General Hospital in Athens-Greece during a two years (2007- 2009) period. In this study the patients were examined and their personal and medical data were taken. For each patient, the phenomenon of epilepsy was studied in relation to different risk factors. The odd ratios have been computed to see the significant factors associated with epilepsy. Results: Positive family history for epilepsy, head trauma, sex, febrile and abnormal perinatal history and low education, were shown to have a statistically significant association with epilepsy. Key words: Statistics in Medicine; Epilepsy; Risk factors for Epilepsy; Odds ratio. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Athanassios Vozikis Lecturer, University of Piraeus, Economics Dept. 80, Karaoli & Dimitriou street 18534 Piraeus, Greece Tel: 210 4142280 Email: avozik@unipi.gr INTRODUCTION pilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures. 1 Epilepsy is a common disabling condition, which affects approximately 3% of the world population during their lifetime. About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, with almost 90% of these people being in developing countries. 2 Epilepsy is more likely to occur in young children or people over the age of 65 years; however it can occur at any time. Epilepsy is usually controlled, but cannot be cured with E