Table 4

Participant inclusion and exclusion criteria for different WPs

WP	Inclusion criteria	Exclusion criteria
WP1a: retrospective cohort study 1
	Incident cared for by YAS. Person aged ≥16 years (no upper age limit). (Those ≥16 account for 90% of incidents.62 Incident occurred between 1 February 2019 and 31 January 2020.* ‘Chief complaint’ (or other complaint) selected by attending ambulance clinician on PCR was ‘convulsions/fitting/seizure’ OR, if empty, call handler coded it as AMPDS protocol 12 (‘Convulsions’). No restriction on type of ambulance response incident received (ie, could have been ‘Hear & Treat’, ‘See & Treat’, ‘See & Convey to ED’ or ‘See & Convey elsewhere’†).	The <1% of events coded as AMPDSC02. These relate to seizures in someone potentially pregnant. (Guidelines state these should be conveyed because of eclampsia risk.47
WP1b: Knowledge Exchange (KE) workshops
Service users	Aged ≥18 years (no upper age limit). Attended to by an ambulance during prior 12 months for a suspected seizure/s OR a significant other to such a person (eg, family member, friend). Incident could be related to epilepsy, non-epileptic attack disorder or syncope. (They account for ~70% of events.127 Able to provide informed consent and participate in a workshop independently in English. Lives in England.	Severe current psychiatric disorders (eg, acute psychosis). Terminal medical condition.
Clinicians	Aged ≥18 years (no upper limit). Ambulance clinician, ED doctor or nurse. Works in England. Able to provide informed consent and participate in a workshop independently in English.	Severe current psychiatric disorders (eg, acute psychosis). Terminal medical condition.
WP2: retrospective cohort study 2
	Incident cared for by YAS. Person aged ≥16 years (no upper age limit). Incident occurred between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2022.‡ ‘Chief complaint’ (or other complaint) selected by attending ambulance clinician on PCR was ‘convulsions/fitting/seizure’ OR, if field was empty, call handler coded it as AMPDS 12. No restriction on type of ambulance response incident received.	The <1% of events coded as AMPDSC02. These relate to seizures in someone potentially pregnant.
WP3: ‘Next Steps’ workshops
	Aged ≥18 years (no upper limit). Ambulance clinician, seizure/epilepsy guideline developer, user group representative, seizure specialist (eg, neurologist/epilepsy nurse), commissioning representative. Able to provide informed consent and participate in a workshop independently in English. Lives in UK.	Severe current psychiatric disorders (eg, acute psychosis). Terminal medical condition.

*The time period does not include periods of industrial action; is before changes in use of acute services due to COVID-19 became apparent128 ; and is before the first UK COVID-19 fatality.129
†These are the labels used by the National Health Service (NHS) to record the main types of responses that ambulance services provide to incidents. Further detail is available from NHS England.130
‡This time period represents the most contemporary 12 months for which linked data will be available. It excludes COVID-19 national ‘lockdowns’ and the start aligns with when most COVID-19 legal restrictions in England were removed.
AMPDS, Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch System; ED, emergency department; PCR, patient care record; WP, work package; YAS, Yorkshire Ambulance Service.