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Published on: June 2, 2014
Relative Frequency and Risk Factors of COVID-19 Related Headache in a Sample of Egyptian Population: A Hospital-Based
Mona Hussein1, Wael Fathy2, Ragaey A Eid3
1Department of Neurology, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt.
Insights
Headache affects over half of COVID-19 patients, with female gender, fever, dehydration, and specific lab markers predicting its occurrence. Certain factors like primary headache and severe COVID-19 indicate poor response to pain relief.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Infectious Diseases
- Public Health
Background:
- Headache is a common neurological symptom of COVID-19.
- Understanding predictors of COVID-19 headache is crucial for patient management.
Purpose of the Study:
- Determine the frequency of COVID-19 related headaches.
- Identify clinical and laboratory factors associated with headache occurrence.
- Clarify factors impacting headache response to analgesics.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study of 782 recovered COVID-19 patients.
- Analysis of clinical, laboratory, and imaging data from medical records.
- Neurological assessment of headache characteristics and analgesic response.
Main Results:
- Headache occurred in 55.1% of COVID-19 patients.
- Independent predictors of headache included female gender, fever, dehydration, primary headache, high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and low platelet count.
- Primary headache, steroid intake, and moderate-to-severe COVID-19 predicted poor response to analgesics.
Conclusions:
- Headache is a prevalent manifestation of COVID-19.
- Specific clinical and laboratory factors predict headache occurrence and treatment response.
Objectives:
Headache is considered one of the most frequent neurological manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This work aimed to identify the relative frequency of COVID-19-related headache and to clarify the impact of clinical, laboratory findings of COVID-19 infection on headache occurrence and its response to analgesics.
Design:
Cross-sectional study.
Setting:
Recovered COVID-19 patients.
Subjects:
In total, 782 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 infection.
Methods:
Clinical, laboratory, and imaging data were obtained from the hospital medical records. Regarding patients who developed COVID-19 related headache, a trained neurologist performed an analysis of headache and its response to analgesics.
Results:
The relative frequency of COVID-19 related headache among our sample was 55.1% with 95% confidence interval (CI) (.516-.586) for the estimated population prevalence. Female gender, malignancy, primary headache, fever, dehydration, lower levels of hemoglobin and platelets and higher levels of neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and CRP were significantly associated with COVID-19 related headache. Multivariate analysis revealed that female gender, fever, dehydration, primary headache, high NLR, and decreased platelet count were independent predictors of headache occurrence. By evaluating headache response to analgesics, old age, diabetes, hypertension, primary headache, severe COVID-19, steroid intake, higher CRP and ferritin and lower hemoglobin levels were associated with poor response to analgesics. Multivariate analysis revealed that primary headache, steroids intake, moderate and severe COVID-19 were independent predictors of non-response to analgesics.
Discussion:
Headache occurs in 55.1% of patients with COVID-19. Female gender, fever, dehydration, primary headache, high NLR, and decreased platelet count are considered independent predictors of COVID-19 related headache.
