Volume 25, Issue 115, September 2021

Prevalence and impact of primary headache on quality of life in the general population of Arar, Northern Saudi Arabia

Abdelrahman Mohamed Ahmed Abukanna¹, Norah Ayed Ayash Alenezi², Atheer Ayed Tinan Alenezi², Malak Ayed Tinan Alenezi²

¹Associate prof., Internal Medicine Department, Northern Border University, Arar, Saudi Arabia
²Undergraduate Medical student, Northern Border University, Arar, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Background: Headache is a common health problem; it could leads to negating influences on the quality of life. Objective: The study aimed to investigate the prevalence and influence of primary headache on the quality of life of the general population of Arar, Northern Saudi Arabia. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted during the period from April 1st to July 31st, 2021. Data was collected from all adult male and female attendees of 5 randomly selected primary health care centers (PHC) in Arar city. Pre-designed standardized questionnaire was used for data collection. The impact of headache on HRQL was assessed by using headache impact test (HIT-6). Collected data was analyzed using SPSS software program, Ver. 24. Results: Most (86.9%) of participants had a headache in the preceding year, 51.3% of them had headache monthly, 36.2% don’t use any medications and in 30.3% of participants headache usually persists for hours in spite of medication. The impact of headache on participant’s HRQL was little or no impact in 23.4% of them, moderate impact in 21.7%, substantial impact in 13.6% and severe impact in 41.2%. Conclusion: In the current study, the prevalence rate of primary headaches was 86.9% during the preceding year, which is higher than the estimated results of other studies. We discovered that headaches have a thoughtful effect on the participant's HRQL in 41.2% of the participants. Here is a substantial association on the impact of headaches in HRQL and two socio-demographic characteristics, sex and average monthly income of the participants' family.

Keywords: Prevalence; Impact; Headache; General population; Arar; Saudi Arabia

Medical Science, 2021, 25(115), 2431-2439

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