Sociodemographic Differences in the Prevalence of Self-Reported Headache in Icelandic School-Children

Abstract

The study considers the prevalence of headache experiences in a random national sample of 2140 Icelandic 11-12 and 15-16 year-old school-children. The study finds an overall 21.9% prevalence of "at least weekly" headache. The prevalence is significantly higher among younger children and among girls. The gender difference is found to be related to the fact that older boys have a markedly lower prevalence than younger boys. No gender difference is observed in the younger group. Social class interacts with gender, with the gender difference leveling out in the upper class. The frequency of headache experiences correlates with last months use of medication to relieve headache. The high overall prevalence of headache found in this study agrees with earlier findings, and is a matter of concern since little is being done to counter this problem of discomfort among school-children.

Prevalence of self-reported back pain in school children: A study of sociodemographic differences

“…However, the 32.2% overall prevalence of monthly back pain among the 11-to 12-year-olds is close to the 30.4% found by Olsen et al [7] In contrast to other common pains in school children such as headache [6], back pain was unrelated to gender, which is in line with recent findings among American children [7]. However, back pain was strongly related to age with a higher prevalence in older children.…”

“…As part of a larger investigation of self-reported pain in Icelandic school children [6], the present study used a representative national probability sample of school children to explore sociodemographic differences (age, gender, social class, and residence) in the prevalence of experienced back pain.…”

Impact of headache on young people in a school population

“…Between 6.5% and 30% of children and adolescents report headaches weekly or more frequently. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] The recognition that personal burden of illness cannot be fully described by clinical measures alone has led to the development of instruments that measure both disease-related and generic impact on quality of life. In a critical review of the literature measuring the impact of headache in children and adolescents, considerable methodological limitations were found.…”

Prevalence of headache and headache-related disability in children and adolescents

“…청소년기에는 두통의 빈도도 증 가하지만 두통에 의한 지장도 많아진다 [1,3]. 이후 두통 역학에 대한 많은 연구가 이루어졌다 [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. 소 아청소년(7-15세)에서 두통의 유병률은 57-83%로 보고 되었다 [7,8].…”

“…소 아청소년(7-15세)에서 두통의 유병률은 57-83%로 보고 되었다 [7,8]. 나이에 따른 두통 유병률은 10세 이전 소아의 10-20%, 11-16세 청소년의 20-35%으로 보고되었다 [9]. …”