Abstract

Background
Previous studies suggested sports as a potent trigger of headaches. Compared with other headache syndromes, sports-related headaches(SRH) have attracted little academic interest. Therefore the precise epidemiology and characteristics of SRH remain uncertain. Methods: To investigate the characteristic features of SRH, we used a self-designed questionnaire, which was completed by 500 students of Jeonbuk National University in Korea. The subdivision of SRH was done based on clinical patterns. Results: Mean age of male-student respondents was 23.5±2.5 year old and that of female-student res- pondents was 21.6±1.5 year old. The prevalence of SRH among university students was 29.6%(148 of 500). The prevalence of SRH in male-students was slightly higher than that of female-students(30.3%, and 29.2%, respectively). The most common subtype of SRH, effort/ exertion headache, was slightly more prevalent in female students than in male students(94.4% and 92.2%, respectively). However, the prevalence of effort/exertion migraine in male students was slightly higher than that in female students (5.2% and 4.3%, respectively). Meanwhile, post-traumatic headache was found only in one male-student. A variety of sports and exercise were described as initiating SRH, sprinting being the most common. Whereas basketball and football predominantly initiated headache in male-students, sprinting and long distance running frequently caused headache in female-students. Precipitating factors were varied, the most common being cardiopulmonary overloading which accounted for 113(76%) of the SRH cases. Other precipitating factors were trauma, dehydration, heat, high altitude, hypoglycemia, and tiredness. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that sports- and exercise-related headaches are a common pro- blem among university students. Our results might be helpful to understand the characteristics of SRH and provide some basic information for future studies. Korean Journal of Headache 3(2):93-98, 2002