Quality of life in adolescents with primary headaches

Background Headaches are common problems in adults, adolescents, and children. Headaches impact a child's life, their family life, and even society. An assessment of quality of life in adolescents with primary headaches may help to determine actions necessary to improve the quality of life of these patients. Objective To assess the quality oflife of adolescents with primary headach es compared to healthy adolescents. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study in December 2009 on adolescents aged 13 to 18 years. The headache group consisted of children with primary headaches according to the International Classification of Headache Disarders and the control group consisted of healthy adolescents. Subjects were selected by consecutive sampling, with 75 subjects in each group. Subjects filled the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventary version 4.0 (PedsQL 4.0) questionnaire. Results The mean PedsQL total score was significantly lower in the headache group than in the contra 1 group [ l 7 5. 7 vs. 392.2, respectively, (95%CI of differences -28.l to -219.3, P = 0.001)]. However, out of23 items in the questionnaire, 9 were not significantly different between the headache and control groups. Conclusions Primary headaches in adolescents is associated with lower quality of life. Most quality of life domains scores are significantly lower in adolescents with primary headaches compared to those without primary headaches.