BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Upon accepting the invitation to participate in the 2003 National Nutrition Health Survey (NNHeS), the Philippine Neurological Association (PNA), through its research committee, decided to create and validate a questionnaire to determine the prevalences for stroke, Parkinsonism, dementia, migraine and epilepsy. This first of a two-part paper describes the validation of the 10 item PNA questionnaire.

METHODOLOGY: The five participating PNA councils contributed two questions that they believed were best able to capture the presence of the particular disease of their interest. These questions taken together formed the ten-item PNA questionnaire. Trained interviewers administered the questionnaire in neurology out-patient clinics on consecutive patients who agreed to join the study. Using neurologists' clinical diagnosis as gold standard after a face-to-face interview with the patient, the sensitivity and specificity of each item of the questionnaire were calculated.

RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity of each item of the questionnaire showed modest results. This result is understandable for neurological syndromes with different clinical presentations having different subtypes and severity.

IMPLICATIONS: The validated PNA questionnaire was submitted to become part of the NNHeS survey. (Author)

Stroke ; Dementia ; Migraine Disorders ; Parkinsonian Disorders ; Epilepsy ; Prevalence

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To date, there are no national prevalence data on common neurological conditions. This study aims to determine the prevalences of stroke, parkinsonism, dementia and migraine in the Philippines derived from a population-based sampling.

METHODOLOGY: Cross-sectional study using a multistaged cluster sampling methodology was employed. The validated PNA questionnaire was incorporated into the National Nutrition Health Survey (NNHeS) together with the survey tools of the other thirteen medical societies in need of their prevalence data.

RESULTS: This study evaluated 4,753 adults aged 20 or more from 2636 households, 17 regions and 79 provinces of the Philippines. The weighted adjusted point prevalence for stroke was 1.4 percent based on a previous diagnosis of stroke. Using the PNA questionnaire, the prevalence of parkinsonism, dementia and migraine were 0.95 percent, 3.14 percent and 7.9 percent respectively. As expected, the prevalences of stroke, dementia, parkinsonism increased with advancing age. There was a female predominance in all the four conditions.

IMPLICATIONS: These prevalence data would give clinicians and policy makers an estimate of how frequent these five common neurological illnesses affect the Filipino adult population. This knowledge is important for health planning, prioritization of health projects and as baseline for future prevalence studies. (Author)

Stroke ; Dementia ; Migraine Disorders ; Parkinsonism Disorders ; Epilepsy ; Prevalence ; Cross-sectional Studies