THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF HEADACHE IN GERMANY - A NATIONWIDE SURVEY OF A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE ON THE BASIS OF THE HEADACHE CLASSIFICATION OF THEINTERNATIONAL-HEADACHE-SOCIETY

This study presents the first account of the prevalence of headache sy ndromes, defined according to the International Headache Society crite ria, in a large representative sample of the German population, 5000 p ersons representative of the total population were selected from 30,00 0 households. Subjects were requested to answer a questionnaire about headache occurrence during their lifetime. The completion rate was 81. 2%. Seventy-one point four percent (n = 2902) reported a history of he adache. Twenty-seven point five percent fulfilled the criteria for mig raine. Thirty-eight point three percent (n = 1557) met the criteria fo r tension-type headache and 5.6% (n = 229) did not fulfil criteria for either migraine or tension-type headache. Significant correlations we re found between the prevalence of the different headache syndromes an d sociodemographic variables such as sex, age and place of residence. The prevalence of headache did not exhibit any significant differences between the various lander (states or regions) of Germany. When extra polated to the total population these results reveal that 54 million p eople in Germany suffer from headache at least occasionally or persist ently. These findings suggest that the magnitude of the neurological d isorders, migraine and tension-type headache, is seriously underestima ted and thus constitutes a major contemporary health problem.