Self-reported headache in schoolchildren: parents underestimate their children's headaches
Christofer Lundqvist1, Jocelyne Clench-Aas, Dag Hofoss
1Department of Neurology, Ullevål University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. christ-l@optonet.no
Insights
Childhood headache prevalence is higher than previously thought. Direct self-reports from children using diaries revealed significantly more frequent headaches compared to parental estimates.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Neurology
- Epidemiology
- Child Psychology
Background:
- Previous childhood headache studies relied on indirect parental or physician reports.
- This method may underestimate the true prevalence of headaches in children.
- Direct reporting from children offers a more accurate assessment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine childhood headache prevalence using direct self-reports from children.
- To compare children's self-reported headache data with parental reports.
- To identify discrepancies in headache reporting between children and parents.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study involving 2126 children aged 7-12 years in Oslo, Norway.
- Parental questionnaires collected retrospective headache data over 6 months.
- Children completed daily diaries for 6 weeks to record headache occurrences.
Main Results:
- Self-reported headache prevalence in children was 57.6% over one month.
- Parental reports, especially from fathers, underestimated headache frequency.
- Discrepancies were larger for girls and younger children, with underreporting for frequent headaches.
Conclusions:
- Direct, diary-based self-reports provide a more accurate measure of childhood headache prevalence.
- Parental reports significantly underestimate headache frequency in children.
- Widespread adoption of diary-based methods is recommended for future childhood headache research.
Background:
Most previous studies of childhood headache have used indirect parental/physician reports to estimate the prevalence of headache in children.
Aim:
To use direct information from children and to compare the results with data collected from parents.
Study Design/Methods:
A cross-sectional questionnaire was sent to parents of 7-12-y-olds in Oslo, Norway. The questionnaire included retrospective reports by the parents of the presence of headache among their children during the past 6 mo. A panel study was subsequently done with daily diaries completed by the children over 6 wk. This was done at school.
Results:
For 2126 children, both diary reports and parental reports were available. We found a 1-mo prevalence of self-reported headache of 57.6%. Parents, particularly fathers, reported lower headache prevalence than the children. The difference between parental reports and those of the children was larger when the child was a girl. There was a clear difference for the youngest children and parental underreporting for children with the most frequent headaches.
Conclusion:
Since indirect parental reports of child headache underestimated headache frequency compared to direct diary-based self-reports, we suggest more widespread use of diary registration of headaches in studies of child headache.
