Headaches in Adolescents- Frequency, Risk Factors and Other Health Complaints: Cross-Sectional Study in Croatia
Journal Title: Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research (BJSTR) - Year 2017, Vol 1, Issue 2
Abstract
Headaches are very common in school population. The aim of this article is to determine the epidemiological data on headaches among Croatian school children and their connection to risk factors and other health complaints. For the purposes of this article we used the Croatian database of the international research Health Behavior in School-aged Children for 2013/2014. This is a cross-sectional study conducted every four years in 44 countries among children aged 11-16. The students were interviewed using an anonymous standardized questionnaire. The Croatian sample consisted of 5741 students, of which 49.8% girls (2857) and 50.2% boys (2884). The response rate was 85.9%. Headaches were reported to be often (once a week to daily) by 23.5% students and were more often in girls and in higher school grades. They were positively linked to smoking cigarettes and health complaints such as back and stomach pain, bad mood, nervousness, irritability, difficulties with sleeping and dizziness. Headaches are common among students, more common among female students and at older age groups. They are associated to many health problems and they could cause difficulties in students functioning. This could be a serious problem. This study indicates the connection of headaches with cigarette smoking and importance to underpin the smoking prevention programs. Somatic pain is very common among adolescents [1]. Headaches are along with stomach and back pain the most common health issue and the most common type of pain in this age group and they are becoming more and more frequent [1-7]. They are the most often recurring symptom and are connected to pain in adult age [1,8,9]. According to studies conducted thus far, headache frequency varies considerably [3,10,11]. The frequency according to individual studies depends on the formulation of questions related to headaches in the questionnaires and on the age of the respondents (in literature 4 to 18 years of age) and literature data are not easily comparable. Thus, according to some, 10-30% of school children suffer from headaches once a week or once a day and 9-33% at least once a month (7-17 years) [4]. It is also shown that the frequency of headaches from once a month to ever in life amounts to 54,4-58,4%, weekly from 6-44%, and daily from 1-9% (12-18 years)[7]. Other authors state that 33-40% of school children suffer from headaches at least once a week (12-15 years) [5]. In Croatia, the prevalence of recurrent headaches among population of high school students in Zagreb amounts to 30.1% (16-18 years) [12] and 54,1% among students in 18 high schools in 10 cities of Republic of Croatia (15-18 years) [13]. Headaches occur more often in girls than in boys and become more frequent with child’s age and the level of education [1,5,11,14,15]. Iranian researcher claim that there is no difference among genders stratified according to individual age groups [11]. Headaches decrease the quality of life [3,7,8,10,16], have a negative influence on school success [3,8] and cause school absenteeism [11,16]. They are linked to emotional and physical difficulties [4,5,7,8]. Available research results prove the relation with symptoms of depression and anxiety [4,8,16], musculoskeletal pain [1,6,8], obesity [5,8], epilepsy and asthma [8]. Headaches represent a multi factorial disorder [8,15,17]. They are linked to stress, primarily in school (due to tests and questioning), school environment, psychological and physical abuse, peer violence, inadequate spending of leisure time and high parents’ expectations [1,3,5,6,10]. Authors also state that there is a connection to alcohol consumption, smoking cigarettes, use of electronic media and physical inactivity [1,2,5,6,9]. The aim of this article is to determine the epidemiological data on headaches among Croatian school children and their connection to risk factors and other health complaints.
Authors and Affiliations
Irena Jurišić, Ivana Pavić Šimetin, Marinko Dikanović, Ante Cvitković
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP567574
- DOI 10.26717/BJSTR.2017.01.000212
- Views 203
- Downloads 0
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