A POPULATION-BASED SURVEY OF HEADACHE AND MIGRAINE IN 22,809 ADULTS

A population-based epidemiological study of the prevalence of headache in a sample of 24,682 adults was carried out in Finland. Enquiries we re made concerning the frequency of headache, migraine and characteris tics of headache attacks in a questionnaire survey in 1981. Headache w as classified as migraine, and headache without migrainous features. P ossible somatic causes of headache were excluded by record-linkage wit h three nation-wide medical registries. The prevalence of both headach e types depended on age and gender. Among women the overall prevalence of migraine was 10.1% with a maximum of 11.5% in the 40-49 age group. The prevalence rate among men was 2.5% and the female/male gender rat io was 4.0. Women with migraine had an average of 52.5 headache occasi ons during a year and men with migraine 61 headache occasions per year . At the individual level, headache without migrainous features was le ast invalidating. There were only 16.5 headache occasions a year among women and 11.5 among men. However, from a population perspective head ache without migrainous features accounted for 46.5% of all headache o ccasions among women and for 60.8% among men. Thus, from the public he alth view-point, studies of ''non-clinical'' headache, e.g. headache w ithout migrainous features should be emphasized.