Introduction: Recognizing the magnitude of neurological disorders and the disabilities associated with it in the community is the first step towards integration of neurology care with general health care. Increase in neurological disorders and mismatch between need and available resources (Manpower and infrastructure) are posing challenges for providing neurological care to the community. Objective: To study prevalence of neurological disorders and the utilization of health services in a sub-center area in Udupi Taluk Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted for a period of two years among individuals in 1027 households of the study population Results: Study targeted 1132 families out of which 1027 families were covered comprising of 5031 individuals. Among them about 10% suffered from neurological disorders with almost 50% of then having various types of pains/aches. Headaches followed by stroke and seizures were the next common neurological disorders. A large majority utilized allopathic services predominantly at primary and secondary centers. Only 10% of those with neurological disorders visited a qualified neurospecialist. Most of this population was unaware regarding availability of neurological care. Conclusion: Headache, Pains and aches are the most common neurological disorders in this population with underutilization and poor awareness about neurological services. Large scale population based surveys are the need of the hour for developing hospital and community based neurological services in India.

Keywords: Community based study; Prevalence; Neurological disorders; Utilization.