Management of headache and associated factors among undergraduate medicine and health science students of University of Gondar, North West Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: The headache disorders, namely, migraine and tension type headache and the associated analgesic consumption is badly underestimated and thus makes a major current public health problem. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of migraine and tension type headaches and the associated management options used among undergraduate students of College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia. METHOD: Institution based cross sectional study was conducted among 720 students in May, 2014. Pretested and structured self-administered questionnaires were used as data collecting tool followed by short interview to diagnose the type of headache based on the International Headache Society diagnostic criteria. SPSS version 20 was also used to analyse the data descriptively as well as inferentially using logistic regression models to investigate factors associated with presence of headache and analgesic use. RESULT: The prevalence of lifetime headache and headache in the last 12 months was 81.11 and 67.22 %, respectively. Migraine and tension type headache were having 94 (13.06 %) and 481 (66.81 %) prevalence, respectively. Prevalence of life time headache was significant among females, students with family history of headache and lack of adequate vacation time. Similarly, lifetime prevalence of analgesic use for headache was 72.45 % and it had statistical association with sex, age, type of headache, lack of adequate vacation time and family history of headache. Majority of the students, migraineurs (54.65 %) and the tension type headache sufferers (66.17 %) commonly used paracetamol. CONCLUSION: High prevalence without adequate medical care seeking behaviour and the associated significant analgesic consumption necessitate the designing of all rounded strategies to improve the quality of life of individuals with such neurologic disorders.