CLINICAL PROFILE OF RECURRENT HEADACHES AMONG THE CHILDREN RESIDING IN RURAL HABITATS

Abstract

Introduction: Recurrent headaches can progress to very frequent or even daily episodes of headaches and could have an enormous impact on the life of the children and adolescents. Objective: To study the clinical profile of recurrent headaches among the children residing in rural area. Methodology: A cross- sectional study was conducted at rural tertiary health care centre among the children in an age group 5 to 14 years in year 2019. A total of 160 children were enrolled, interviewed and examined as per structured proforma includes study parameters. The data were analyzed using statistical software and presented in tabular and graphical form. Results: The mean age of participants was 4.43 years with a male to female ratio as 1.1:1. The proportion of primary recurrent headache was 76.2% of which tension and migraine type was 52.4% and 41.8% respectively. Among the total migraine cases, migraine without aura was reported in 90.1% children. Somatization disorder, 63.1% was the most common cause of a secondary headache. As the age increases, frequency of recurrent headache also increases denoted by p - value, 0.004* with higher proportion participants, 62.5% age group 11 to 14 yrs. The average duration of headache illness was 1.8± 0.9 years with the mean duration of headache episodes was 3.57 hours respectively. Conclusion: Recurrent headache is a commonly encountered entity in the children from rural background which was attributed to various etiologies. Most of the children with recurrent headaches in rural regions approach late to health care setup which leads to a crippling effect on productivity in various fields like education and development.