The prevalence of primary headache disorders in Russia: a countrywide survey

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the 1-year prevalences of primary headache disorders and identify their principal risk factors in the general population of Russia.

Methods: A countrywide population-based random sample of 2725 biologically unrelated adults in 35 cities and nine rural areas were interviewed in a door-to-door survey using a previously validated diagnostic questionnaire.

Results: Of the 2725 eligible adults contacted, 2025 (74.3%) responded (females 52.6%, mean age 39.5 ± 13.4 years). Of these, 1273 (62.9%) reported headache 'not related to flu, hangover, cold, head injury' occurring at least once in the previous year. The gender- and age-standardized 1-year prevalence of migraine was 20.8%. Female gender (odds ratio (OR) = 3.8; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.8-5.1) and obesity (OR = 1.5; 1.1-2.1) were positively associated with this type of headache. The gender- and age-standardized 1-year prevalence of tension-type headache (TTH) was 30.8%. TTH was more prevalent in urban than in rural areas (OR = 1.6; 1.3-2.0). Headache on ≥15 days/month was reported by 213 (10.5%) respondents (gender- and age-standardized prevalence 10.4%), and associated with low socioeconomic status (OR = 3.4; 2.4-4.9), obesity (OR = 3.0; 2.1-4.3), female gender (OR = 2.9; 2.1-4.1) and age over 40 years (OR = 2.6; 1.9-3.6). The majority of these respondents (68.1%) overused acute headache medications.

Conclusion: The study demonstrated a high prevalence of migraine and a very high prevalence of headache on ≥15 days/month, and revealed unmet health-care needs of people with headache in Russia.