The global burden of headache: a documentation of headache prevalence and disability worldwide

doi:10.1111/j.1468-2982.2007.01288.x

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Wiley InterScience

Cephalalgia

Volume 27 Issue 3, Pages 193 - 210

Published Online: 5 Mar 2007

Published on behalf of the International Headache Society

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REVIEW

The global burden of headache: a documentation of headache prevalence and disability worldwide

LJ Stovner ¹ , K Hagen ¹ , R Jensen ² , Z Katsarava ³ , RB Lipton ⁴ , AI Scher ⁵ , TJ Steiner ⁶ & J-A Zwart ¹

¹ Norwegian National Headache Centre, Department of Neuroscience, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway, ² Danish Headache Centre, Glostrup University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark, ³ Department of Neurology, University Hospital Essen, Germany, ⁴ Department of Neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, USA, ⁵ Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, Uniformed Services University, Maryland, USA, ⁶ Division of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Imperial College, London, UK

Correspondence to Lars Jacob Stovner, Norwegian National Headache Centre, Department of Neuroscience, Trondheim University Hospital, N-7006 Trondheim, Norway. Tel. + 47 7257 5070, fax + 47 7359 8795, e-mail lars.stovner@ntnu.no

KEYWORDS

Burden of disease • epidemiology • headache • 'Lifting The Burden Global Campaign' • migraine

Stovner LJ, Hagen K, Jensen R, Katsarava Z, Lipton R, Scher AI, Steiner TJ & Zwart J-A. The global burden of headache: a documentation of headache prevalence and disability worldwide. Cephalalgia 2007; 27:193–210. London. ISSN 0333-1024

ABSTRACT

This study, which is a part of the initiative 'Lifting The Burden: The Global Campaign to Reduce the Burden of Headache Worldwide', assesses and presents all existing evidence of the world prevalence and burden of headache disorders. Population-based studies applying International Headache Society criteria for migraine and tension-type headache, and also studies on headache in general and 'chronic daily headache', have been included. Globally, the percentages of the adult population with an active headache disorder are 46% for headache in general, 11% for migraine, 42% for tension-type headache and 3% for chronic daily headache. Our calculations indicate that the disability attributable to tension-type headache is larger worldwide than that due to migraine. On the World Health Organization's ranking of causes of disability, this would bring headache disorders into the 10 most disabling conditions for the two genders, and into the five most disabling for women.

Received 15 May 2006, accepted 1 October 2006

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1468-2982.2007.01288.x About DOI