Prevalence of Tremor Disorders in Young Male Population of Turkey

Abstract

Objective: Prevalence studies of tremor disorders for young ages are less. The worldwide prevalence of essential tremor for all ages over 18 is approximately between 0.39% and 4.2%. The primary goal of this study is to investigate the prevalence of essential tremor and as well as prevalence of other tremor disorders in young male persons. Methods:A total of 7200 male individuals, coming from different geographic regions for attending to the army forces in a city in the west of Turkey, Çanakkale, enrolled in the study. Their ages varied between 20 and 36. The study was planned in 2 phases. In the first phase, a physician who was trained about tremor evaluation examined the participants by taking their anamnesis and physical examination. The tremors detected in this phase were re-evaluated by a neurologist in the second phase. Essential tremor was diagnosed according to the criteria of Washington Heights-Inwood Genetic Study of Essential Tremor (WHIGET), physiological tremor and psychogenic tremor were diagnosed according to the Consensus Statement of the Movement Disorder Society on Tremor. Results:The number of participants with tremor was found to be 626 (8.7%) in the first phase and they were sent to the hospital for the second phase. Examination of the participants by the neurologist, revealed essential tremor in 226 (3.13%), physiological tremor in 318 (4.41%) and psychogenic tremor in 82 (1.13%). Conclusion:Essential tremor prevalence we found in young male individuals is higher than the similar studies. Again in our study, we detected physiological tremor prevalence similar to essential tremor.