Quality of life in adolescents with primary headaches
Abstract
Background Headaches are common problems in adults,
adolescents, and children. Headaches impact a child's life, their
family life, and even society. An assessment of quality of life in
adolescents with primary headaches may help to determine actions
necessary to improve the quality of life of these patients.
Objective To assess the quality oflife of adolescents with primary
headach es compared to healthy adolescents.
Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study in December
2009 on adolescents aged 13 to 18 years. The headache group
consisted of children with primary headaches according to the
International Classification of Headache Disarders and the control
group consisted of healthy adolescents. Subjects were selected by
consecutive sampling, with 75 subjects in each group. Subjects
filled the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventary version 4.0 (PedsQL
4.0) questionnaire.
Results The mean PedsQL total score was significantly lower
in the headache group than in the contra 1 group [ l 7 5. 7 vs.
392.2, respectively, (95%CI of differences -28.l to -219.3, P =
0.001)]. However, out of23 items in the questionnaire, 9 were
not significantly different between the headache and control
groups.
Conclusions Primary headaches in adolescents is associated
with lower quality of life. Most quality of life domains scores
are significantly lower in adolescents with primary headaches
compared to those without primary headaches.
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Accepted 2016-08-30
Published 2013-12-30
