Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Mar 17;26(1):56.
doi: 10.1186/s10194-025-01992-7.

The burden of headache disorders in Benin: national estimates from a population-based door-to-door survey

Thierry Adoukonou  1 , Mendinatou Agbetou  1 , Eric Dettin  1 , Oyéné Kossi  1 , Andreas Husøy  2 , Dismand Houinato  1 , Timothy J Steiner  3   4   5
Affiliations

The burden of headache disorders in Benin: national estimates from a population-based door-to-door survey

Thierry Adoukonou et al. J Headache Pain. .

Abstract

Background: Continuing the series of population-based studies conducted within the Global Campaign against Headache, here we report estimates of headache-attributed burden among adults in Benin, West sub-Saharan Africa, adding to those already published of prevalence.

Methods: In a cross-sectional survey using cluster-randomized sampling, we visited households unannounced in three geographical regions of Benin: Borgou, Atlantique and Littoral. We randomly selected and interviewed one adult member (18-65 years) of each household, using the HARDSHIP structured questionnaire. Screening and diagnostic questions based on ICHD-3 were followed by burden enquiry in multiple domains including symptom burden and impaired participation. Enquiry timeframes were 1 year, 3 months, 1 month and 1 day (headache yesterday). Data collection took place from May to July 2020.

Results: There were 2,400 participants. Those reporting any headache spent, on average, 8.0% of their total time with headache of moderate-to-severe intensity. Females had more frequent headache than males. Participants with migraine spent twice as much time with headache as those with TTH (5.2% vs. 2.6%). Those with probable medication-overuse headache or other headache on ≥ 15 days/month spent over 50% of their time with headache. Factoring in prevalence and adjusting for age and gender, we estimated that 6.4-6.5% of all time among the adult population of Benin was spent with headache. An estimated 26.7% of the population were assessed as in need of (likely to benefit from) health care for headache.

Conclusion: The burden of headache in Benin is substantial in terms of lost health. These findings are important to national health and economic policies.

Keywords: Benin; Burden of disease; Epidemiology; Global Campaign against Headache; Headache disorders; Health-care needs assessment; Medication-overuse headache; Migraine; Population-based survey; Tension-type headache; sub-Saharan Africa.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee for Biomedical Research of the University of Parakou (CLERB-UP) under number 0168/CLERB-UP/P/SP/SA of April 10, 2019. Necessary authorizations from academic and administrative authorities were obtained. All participants were informed of the nature and purpose of the study and gave oral consent before enrolment. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: TJS and AH are Directors and Trustees of Lifting The Burden. TJS is associate editor of The Journal of Headache and Pain. AH is a member of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Headache and Pain. Otherwise, no author declares a conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Impaired participation in paid (red) and household work (green) and in social or leisure activities (blue) by headache type. Error bars are 95% CIs. pMOH: probable medication-overuse headache; H15+: headache on ≥ 15 days/month; TTH: tension-type headache
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Steiner TJ, Birbeck GL, Jensen RH, Martelletti P, Stovner LJ, Uluduz D et al (2022) The global campaign turns 18: a brief review of its activities and achievements. J Headache Pain 23:49. 10.1186/s10194-022-01420-0 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mbewe E, Zairemthiama P, Paul R, Birbeck GL, Steiner TJ (2015) The burden of primary headache disorders in Zambia: National estimates from a population-based door-to-door survey. J Headache Pain 16:36. 10.1186/s10194-015-0513-9 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zebenigus M, Tekle-Haimanot R, Worku DK, Thomas H, Steiner TJ (2017) The burden of headache disorders in Ethiopia: National estimates from a population-based door-to-door survey. J Headache Pain 18:58. 10.1186/s10194-017-0765-7 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yu S, Liu R, Zhao G, Yang X, Qiao X, Feng J et al (2012) The prevalence and burden of primary headaches in China: a population-based door-to-door survey. Headache 52:582–591. 10.1111/j.1526-4610.2011.02061.x - PubMed
    1. Rao GN, Kulkarni GB, Gururaj G, Stovner LJ, Steiner TJ (2015) The burden attributable to headache disorders in India: estimates from a community-based study in Karnataka state. J Headache Pain 16:94. 10.1186/s10194-015-0574-9 - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources