OBJECTIVE: To describe the prevalence of headache and its interference in the activities of
daily living (ADL) in female adolescent students. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study enrolled 228 female adolescents from a
public school in the city of Petrolina, Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil, aged ten to
19 years. A self-administered structured questionnaire about socio-demographic
characteristics, occurrence of headache and its characteristics was employed.
Headaches were classified according to the International Headache Society
criteria. The chi-square test was used to verify possible associations, being
significant p<0.05. RESULTS: After the exclusion of 24 questionnaires that did not met the inclusion criteria,
204 questionnaires were analyzed. The mean age of the adolescents was 14.0±1.4
years. The prevalence of headache was 87.7%. Of the adolescents with headache,
0.5% presented migraine without pure menstrual aura; 6.7%, migraine without aura
related to menstruation; 1.6%, non-menstrual migraine without aura; 11.7%,
tension-type headache and 79.3%, other headaches. Significant associations were
found between pain intensity and the following variables: absenteeism
(p=0.001); interference in ADL (p<0.001);
medication use (p<0.001); age (p=0.045) and
seek for medical care (p<0.022). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of headache in female adolescents observed in this study was high,
with a negative impact in ADL and school attendance.
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