Abstract

Background
Headache has been known as a major health problem in medical students and frequency of headache is higher in women compared to men. However, prevalence of headache in medical students has not been studied in Korea. This study was performed to evaluate the prevalence, characteristics and management of headache in female medical students in a women‘s university in Korea. Methods: Subjects were students of medical college in Ewha Womans university, Seoul, Korea. Students were asked to complete a questionnaire consisted of demographic data, characteristics of headache and headache managements. Migraine and tension type headache were classified by the diagnostic criteria of the international headache society. Results: Three hundred four(87.6%) out of 347 students responded to the questionnaire. Mean age was 22.7 years. Lifetime overall prevalence of headache was 94.4% and last-year prevalence was 90.1%. The prevalence rate of migraine was 9.9% and that of tension type was 47.7%. Lack of sleep was the most common factor triggering headache. Self- medication with non-prescribed drugs was reported in 116(42.3%) students and the most commonly used drugs were simple analgesics. The number of students who had consulted physicians was 20(7.3%). Conclusions: The study shows that headache, especially tension type, is highly prevalent in female medical students compared to general Korean women. The reasons of high prevalence of headache are needed to be evaluated and appropriate managements for headache should be guided in this population.