Abstract Details

Title Adherence of Saudi women with epilepsy to folic acid intake in pre-conceptional period in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Topic Epilepsy/Clinical Neurophysiology (EEG)

Presentation(s) P2 - Poster Session 2 (5:30 PM-6:30 PM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 6-006

Objective The aim is to measure the adherence of Saudi epileptic women to folic acid intake in pre-conceptional period in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Background Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) have been associated with increasing the risk of congenital anomalies. This is thought to be partially related to folate level reduction which has been associated with some AEDs especially barbiturates and carbamazepine. Thus, medical authorities recommend taking folic acid in the pre-conceptional period to reduce the risk of major congenital malformations in the newborns of women with epilepsy. Previous studies showed that the adherence of women with epilepsy to folic acid is not optimal, so we conducted this study to measure the adherence of Saudi epileptic women to folic acid intake.

Design/Methods A cross-sectional study that targeted all female epileptic patients visiting outpatient Epilepsy clinics in King Abdulaziz Medical City and King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh between September 2017 and August 2018. One hundred and forty medical records of patients were reviewed, and total of 85 patients were enrolled in the study based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria by using consecutive non-probability sampling technique. The data were collected by self-administrated questionnaire which was developed by the research team, validated by experts, and assessed the reliability by PILOT study.

Results Mean age of the subjects was 33 ± 7.5. Third of them were university graduates. Among the enrolled subjects, 77% took folic acid on a daily basis and 89% took it in the first trimester of pregnancy but only 38% took folic acid with contraceptive methods. Eighty percent were aware about its role in preventing congenital anomalies. There was no association between educational level and the adherence to folic acid intake.

Conclusions Adherence to folic acid among Saudi women with epilepsy is not optimal. More efforts are needed to increase patient’s awareness for folic acid significance.

Authors/Disclosures
Ahmed A. Alqahtani (King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences) PRESENTER	No disclosure on file
Ali Basher Alanazi, MD, FAAN	Dr. Alanazi has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for Pfizer. Dr. Alanazi has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Speakers Bureau for Jamjoom Pharma .
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
Raghad Alharthi	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
Ahmad Abulaban, MD, FAAN (King Abdulaziz Medical City)	Dr. Abulaban has nothing to disclose.
	No disclosure on file

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