Risk factors of febrile convulsion among children under 5 years, interventional study in mosul city

Background: Febrile convulsion is the most common convulsive disorder in childhood. It is defined as a seizure occurring in a child aged 3 months to 5 years associated with fever but without evidence of intracranial infection or defined cause of their convulsion. Aim of study: to identify the risk factors of febrile convulsion among children admitted to pediatrics hospitals in Mosul city. Patient (material) and method: a case-control hospital based study. The present study was conducted in the three main pediatric hospitals in Mosul city: Ibn Seena, Ibn Al-Atheer, and AL-Khansa, teaching hospitals. It has been planned to collect data during six months period from 1st of January -30th of June 2008. 150 children who have been diagnosed by specialist pediatrician to have febrile convulsion (cases) with another 150 children (controls) who suffered from any disease other than FC with no previous history of febrile convulsion. Especially design questionnaire form has been prepared; these questionnaires were filled by interview with caregiver of both cases and controls. Chi esquire test ( ) for contingency tables to find the significance of the statistical association between cases and controls and the risk factor of interest was used . The 95% confidence interval (CI) for the odd ratio was calculated using Mistiness test based approach. P- Value considered significant if it is ≤ 0.05 for the entire study. Result: The present study showed that Gastroenteritis constituted a major cause of fever among cases of FC and 74.6% of cases were simple febrile convulsion, male affected more than female. Regarding risk factors of FC, the study demonstrates the following significant predictors of development of febrile convulsion: Regarding the age group demonstrates significant association between age and occurrence of FC. A child whose age between 3months to <1 year is two times more prone to develop FC than those between 1-3 year and older ,Family history of febrile convulsion among first-degree relatives, father smoking during pregnancy and low birth weight baby. Conclusion: The following conclusions were obtained from the present study. 1-Gastroenteritis constituted a major cause of fever among cases of FC. 2-Three quarters (74.7%) of cases were simple febrile convulsion. 3-The following factors were emerged as a risk predictors of development of FC among study sample: Family history of febrile convulsion among first-degree relatives, father smoking during pregnancy and low birth weight baby.