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[The prevalence of headaches in a university population]
F Martínez Sánchez1, A Sánchez Hernández
1Departamento de Metodología y Análisis del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Murcia.
Background:
We have been interested in the prevalence of cephalalgias in a population of university students, as well as its intensity, frequency and duration parameters.
Methods:
A group of 490 adult persons, students in the university of Murcia, was put to a questionnaire prepared for this purpose in which they were asked about the presence or absence of cephalalgia episodes during the last 12 months, as well as about their intensity, frequency and duration. They were also asked whether they knew about their headache cause or diagnosis.
Results:
Results show a characteristic profile 91.9% of persons declare to have suffered from migraines during the last year. Out of them, 40.5% with a minimum frequency of one episode per week with a perceived intermediate intensity of (43.2%) and a duration of 1 to 4 hours (59.7%). Furthermore, statistically significant differences were found in relation with sex: women suffered from more frequent lasting migraines than men; on the contrary, no differences were found between sexes in relation with headache intensity. It is also noticed that 89.65% of persons do not know about the diagnosis or etiology of his trouble.
Conclusions:
Data make evident the high prevalence of headache in University students; This justifies, in our opinion, the implementation of programmes of evaluation dealing with this problem in University students populations.