Comparative Study of Effect of Stress on Headache in Medical and Non-Medical Students

Abstract

Background This study was conducted to compare the effect of stress on headache in medical and nonmedical students. Method In this study, comparisons were made between 200 medical students of S.N.M.C, Agra and 200 non-medical students of Agra College, Agra, aged between 18–21 years, from 1 January 2017 till 30 June 2018. Perceived stress scale was used to determine the prevalence of stress among medical and non-medical students. On the basis of frequency of occurrence of headache, it was categorized as daily, weekly and infrequent. Results Moderate and high perceived levels of stress were found to be more common in medical students as compared to non-medical students and the result was found to be statistically significant (p <0.0001) Daily and weekly headaches were commoner in medical students, whereas, infrequent headache was more common in non-medical students and there was statistically significant difference among both groups (p <0.0001). Among medical students, daily and weekly headaches were more commonly found in high perceived level of stress and infrequent headache was more common in low level of stress and statistically significant difference was found between headache and level of stress among medical students (p <0.0001). Among non-medical students, daily and weekly headaches were common in high perceived level of stress and infrequent headache was also more common in low level of stress and statistically significant difference was found between headache and level of stress among non-medical students (p <0.0001). Conclusion Among the medical students, 48% (96) had infrequent headache, 43.5% (87) had weekly episode of headache and 8.5% (17) had daily headache. While among non-medical students 64% (128) had infrequent headache, 35% (70) had weekly episode of headache and 1% (2) had daily headache which was a statistically significant. Stress headaches are more common among the medical students