Prevalence and burden of primary headache disorders among primary and middle school students in Kuwait

Abstract

Primary headaches are common in the pediatric and adolescent population and can be disabling for them and their families. We aimed to assess the prevalence of primary headache disorders among primary and middle school students in Kuwait. A cross-sectional study was conducted and included all six governorates of Kuwait. Three schools for boys and three schools for girls were randomly selected from each governorate. Thereafter, one class was randomly selected from each school. The Headache-Attributed Restriction, Disability, and Social Handicap and Impaired Participation (HARDSHIP) questionnaire for children and adolescents was used to collect the data. Out of 1613 questionnaires that were distributed, only 1585 students completed the questionnaire with a respondent rate of 95.2%. Age ranged from 7 to 15 years with a mean age of 11.51 + 1.90 for the total samples and a mean age of 10.71 + 1.99 for students with a diagnosis of primary headache disorder. Gender was nearly equally distributed among the total sample (male 47.5% versus female 52.5%) and among students of primary headache disorder (male 51% versus female 49%, P < .20). One-year prevalence of headache was 31.2% with no significant difference among females compared to males (15.3% versus 16%; P < .14). Prevalence of migraine was significantly higher (19.6%) followed by TTH (8.6%), chronic headache (1.3%) and medication-use headache (0.7%) (<0.001). Primary headache prevalence is high among primary and middle school students. Migraine was the most prevalent headache. No significant difference was noted among those age group.