Abstract
BackgroundEuropean data, at least from Western Europe, are relatively good on migraine prevalence but less sound for tension-type headache (TTH) and medication-overuse headache (MOH). Evidence on impact of headache disorders is very limited. Eurolight was a data-gathering exercise primarily to inform health policy in the European Union (EU). This manuscript reports personal impact.MethodsThe study was cross-sectional with modified cluster sampling. Surveys were conducted by structured questionnaire, including diagnostic questions based on ICHD-II and various measures of impact, and are reported from Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom. Different methods of sampling were used in each. The full methodology is described elsewhere.ResultsQuestionnaires were analysed from 8,271 participants (58% female, mean age 43.4 y). Participation-rates, where calculable, varied from 10.6% to 58.8%. Moderate interest-bias was detected. Unadjusted lifetime prevalence of any headache was 91.3%. Gender-adjusted 1-year prevalences were: any headache 78.6%; migraine 35.3%; TTH 38.2%, headache on ≥15 d/mo 7.2%; probable MOH 3.1%. Personal impact was high, and included ictal symptom burden, interictal burden, cumulative burden and impact on others (partners and children). There was a general gradient of probable MOH > migraine > TTH, and most measures indicated higher impact among females. Lost useful time was substantial: 17.7% of males and 28.0% of females with migraine lost >10% of days; 44.7% of males and 53.7% of females with probable MOH lost >20%.ConclusionsThe common headache disorders have very high personal impact in the EU, with important implications for health policy.
Highlights
European data, at least from Western Europe, are relatively good on migraine prevalence but less sound for tension-type headache (TTH) and medication-overuse headache (MOH)
The World Health Report 2001, published by the World Health Organization (WHO), ranked migraine 19th among the causes of disability worldwide, responsible for 1.4% of all years of life lost to disability (YLDs) [1]
Project organization The Eurolight project was a collaboration of 25 groups from 15 different countries: two public bodies (CRP Santé, Luxembourg, and Regione Lombardia—Sanità, Italy); clinicians from 11 hospitals; the professional European Headache Federation (EHF); nine European patients’ organizations including the European Headache Alliance (EHA); the World Headache Alliance (WHA); and Lifting The Burden (LTB), a United Kingdom (UK)-registered nongovernmental organization directing the Global Campaign against Headache in official relations with WHO
Summary
At least from Western Europe, are relatively good on migraine prevalence but less sound for tension-type headache (TTH) and medication-overuse headache (MOH). Eurolight was a data-gathering exercise primarily to inform health policy in the European Union (EU). The World Health Report 2001, published by the World Health Organization (WHO), ranked migraine 19th among the causes of disability worldwide, responsible for 1.4% of all years of life lost to disability (YLDs) [1]. This finding has been cited repeatedly, it considerably underreported the disability that migraine imposes on people throughout the world. Migraine was recognized as the seventh highest among specific causes of disability globally, responsible for 2.9% of all YLDs [12,13,14,15]
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