Background morbidity of headache in an adult general population - Results of the Austrian SERMO (Self-Reported Morbidity) Study

摘要

Study objective: To assess period and point prevalence of headache in Austria and the influence of sociodemographic factors and seasonal variations.Design: Data for the prevalence of headache were drawn from the database of seven representative surveys in the SERMO study (Self-Reported Morbidity Study). The aims of the SERMO study are to describe and monitor the characteristics of background morbidity in the Austrian population. The study is based on face-to-face interviews. Headache/migraine was one of 36 disorders the interviewed persons were asked about.Setting: The representative samples of the Austrian general population were selected by the "quota-procedure". Thus each cross sectional sample is representative for the entire Austrian population.Participants: The study population consisted of 7,162 Austrian people over 15 years of age.Results: About one fifth (20.1) of the Austrian adult population reported having headaches during the year (prevalence 26.4 in women vs. 13.0 in men, p Conclusions: Headache is one of the most commonly experienced symptoms in Austria. The most common concomitant disease in the study population as a whole was hypertension. People with headache had a higher prevalence of hypertension, rheumatic diseases, venous diseases, diabetes and a higher consumption of drugs. Therefore, headache, as one aspect of multimorbidity or a symptom of other diseases, could be an indicator of impaired well-being and poor health.