Epilepsy: key data sources

NRS

Data on deaths come from the system for certification administered by the National Records of Scotland (formerly the General Register Office for Scotland).

Practice Team Information (formerly Continuous Morbidity Recording)

This scheme, administered by ISD, includes a sample of around 60 volunteer Scottish practices. Participating practices collect detailed Read-coded information on the reasons for consultations with members of primary care teams (GPs, nurses and health visitors). The practices are broadly representative of all practices in Scotland, but the numbers are too small to allow Health Board level estimates. PTI reports the proportion of people registered with practices who consult a GP or other members of the practice team because of epilepsy during any one year. They also report the number of consultations for epilepsy. The figures do not indicate the total prevalence as not all people with epilepsy consult their general practice because of the condition within any one year. Further information on PTI is available here.

QOF (nGMS) data

The Quality and Outcomes Framework for the new GMS (General Medical Services) contract provides an estimate of the number of people with epilepsy  who are aged 18 or over and known to each practice. Further information can be found under in the "prevalence data" sections of ISD's Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) pages.

Hospital discharge data

Statistics on hospital admissions for epilepsy are held in the Scottish Morbidity Record (SMR) databases. These data reflect serious complications of epilepsy but do not provide a true reflection of the prevalence of epilepsy, as only a minority of people with epilepsy need to be admitted to hospital.

Prescribing data

Each prescription issued is recorded, and these data are collected and analysed by ISD as part of the data provided by the Prescribing Team (click on 'prescribing statistics' in the left hand menu - data on epilepsy drugs are presented in the section on prescribing cost analysis information). A limitation with regard to drawing conclusions about a epilepsy is that the drugs used in epilepsy can be used for other conditions as well.

Sudden unexplained death in epilepsy

Routine mortality data in Scotland do not provide information on sudden unexplained death in epilepsy (SUDEP). Some epidemiological information is available from a national clinical audit of epilepsy related deaths  (1.46MB) published in 2002. A shorter summary version (268Kb) of this report has been published by NICE.

Other sources of data

Surveys provide useful information about the likely prevalence of epilepsy in Scotland. The review by Forsgren (2005) provides data on prevalence in European countries.

Please note: If you require the most up-to-date data available, please check the data sources directly as new data may have been published since these data pages were last updated. Although we endeavour to ensure that the data pages are kept up-to-date, there may be a time lag between new data being published and the relevant ScotPHO web pages being updated.