Prevalence, pattern, and associated psychosocial factors of headache among undergraduate students of health profession

Abstract

Background: Headache is a common health problem among health professional students which may negatively affect their academic performance and quality of life. The study aimed to determine the prevalence, pattern, associated psychosocial factors and treatment seeking behavior regarding headache among the students of health profession. Methods: The cross sectional study was undertaken during April-September 2016 involving 339 students studying medical, dental and nursing health sciences in KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, India. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect all relevant information. Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) and Headache Attributed Lost Time (HALT) index were used to assess subjective perception regarding intensity of pain over the previous 24 h and disability burden over the last 3 months respectively. Results: The one year prevalence of headache was 73.1%, of which migraine and tension type headache were 33.3% and 19.2% respectively. In majority (93.2%) of the students, the intensity of pain was mild to moderate. More than one third (37.1%) of students reported that headache was affecting their family, social and leisure activities with moderate-severe impact indicating high need of medical care. Logistic regression analysis revealed that female gender (adjusted OR: 2.67), problem in falling asleep (adjusted OR: 2.86), problem in staying asleep (adjusted OR: 11.11), soft drink consumption (adjusted OR: 2.22) and self dissatisfaction with own health (adjusted OR: 1.89) were significantly associated with headache. Conclusion: High prevalence of headache among the students of health profession necessitates designing of appropriate strategies to improve the quality of life in this population.

Assessment of Headache Characteristics, Impact, and Managing Techniques among Pharmacy and Nursing Undergraduates—An Observational Study

“…Only 23.7% of study participants reportedly sought medical advice. These results were in line with other previous studies published around the world [ 14 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. For instance, Alkarrash et al found that, among undergraduate students at the University of Aleppo, 15.9% sought medical attention [ 35 ].…”

“…Based on the frequency of headaches, our study revealed that 66.1% reported headaches weekly, 24.2% complained of headaches five days a week, and 42.8% had four episodes of headaches in a day. A study on undergraduate students of health professions showed that 43.5% of respondents complained of headaches monthly, 37.5% had this complaint on weekly basis, and 19% experienced it daily [ 33 ]. Recently, a study in Bangladesh conducted on university students reported that more than two-thirds of the students had more than five attacks during the past month [ 8 ].…”

Does Husband/Partner Matter in Reduce Women’s Risk of Worries?: Study of Psychosocial Burden of COVID-19 in Indonesia

“…This condition minimizes the occurrence of worries because of the increased ability to recognize risks and preventive behavior so that they can anticipate more readily. Including the impact of psychosocial burden due to the quarantine process 12,22,23 . In general, education was reported in several studies as a positive determinant of program performance in health [24][25][26] .…”

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“…[25] A similar situation is observed in the professional life, students studying at the health faculty have problems with falling asleep and are not healthy. [26][27][28] Therefore, it is thought that this result may be related to risk factors.…”