Prevalence of Headache in Swedish Schoolchildren, with a Focus on Tension-Type Headache

Abstract

To estimate the prevalence of tension-type headache, migraine and other headaches, 1850 schoolchildren, age 7-15 years, from the city of Uppsala, were invited to complete a questionnaire. The response rate was 74.1%. To validate the information from the questionnaires, 131 children and their parents were interviewed. Using the criteria of the International Headache Society, the 1-year prevalence of tension-type headache and migraine was 9.8 and 11.0%, respectively. However, these prevalence rates increased considerably, to 23.0 and 17.0%, respectively, when excluding the criteria defining the number of earlier episodes and duration of headache. The prevalence of headache increased with age, similarly in girls and boys up to 11 years, and thereafter only in girls. The preponderance in teenage girls was even more pronounced for tension-type headache than for migraine. Our results indicate an increase over time in headache prevalence when compared with findings in a study conducted in the same city in 1955.

Present and previous psychopathology of juvenile onset migraine: a pilot investigation by Child Behavior Checklist

“…Population-based studies reported that the prevalence of migraine in childhood and adolescence ranges from 3% to 14% [1][2][3][4][5][6]. From the time of Wolff's early portrait of the childhood personality characteristics of migraine patients, the research began to explore the association of headache first with broad personality traits and then with distinct psychiatric symptoms [7,8].…”

Impact of headache on young people in a school population

“…Studies have reported annual prevalence rates in children of between 3% and 11% for migraine, [4][5][6] and between 10% and 24% for tensiontype headache. 4,7 The prevalence of 'self-reported' headache is higher. Between 6.5% and 30% of children and adolescents report headaches weekly or more frequently.…”

Headache in Children and Adolescents

“…Majority of the information available is limited to hospital-based studies or school surveys which may not reflect the true dimensions of the disorders prevalent in a community. Among the most common representative primary headaches in children, some studies point migraines and others as tension type headache [8][9][10][11] .…”