Prevalence, pattern, and associated psychosocial factors of headache among undergraduate students of health profession

Background: Headache is a common health problem among health professional students which may negatively affect their academic performance and quality of life. The study aimed to determine the prevalence, pattern, associated psychosocial factors and treatment seeking behavior regarding headache among the students of health profession. Methods: The cross sectional study was undertaken during April-September 2016 involving 339 students studying medical, dental and nursing health sciences in KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, India. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect all relevant information. Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) and Headache Attributed Lost Time (HALT) index were used to assess subjective perception regarding intensity of pain over the previous 24 h and disability burden over the last 3 months respectively. Results: The one year prevalence of headache was 73.1%, of which migraine and tension type headache were 33.3% and 19.2% respectively. In majority (93.2%) of the students, the intensity of pain was mild to moderate. More than one third (37.1%) of students reported that headache was affecting their family, social and leisure activities with moderate-severe impact indicating high need of medical care. Logistic regression analysis revealed that female gender (adjusted OR: 2.67), problem in falling asleep (adjusted OR: 2.86), problem in staying asleep (adjusted OR: 11.11), soft drink consumption (adjusted OR: 2.22) and self dissatisfaction with own health (adjusted OR: 1.89) were significantly associated with headache. Conclusion: High prevalence of headache among the students of health profession necessitates designing of appropriate strategies to improve the quality of life in this population.