A survey of headache among nursing students in a Nigerian university

Objectives: Headache is a common neurological disorder associated with a significant disease burden particularly among young people. Data on headache among undergraduate students in Nigeria are still scanty. The main objectives were to determine the 1-year prevalence of headache and headache subtypes among a cohort of nursing undergraduate students, to identify trigger factors and assess mode of treatment of acute attacks among the affected students.Methods: This was a cross– sectional descriptive study carried out over a 2-month period from September to October 2011 among nursing students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Osogbo Nigeria, who had recurrent headaches (unrelated to febrile illness or any underlying disease) in the past one year. Data were collected using a self – administered questionnaire. Demographic variables, age of onset of headache, past medical, family and social histories were obtained.Results: A total of 213 out of 289 nursing students returned completed questionnaires giving a participation rate of 73.7%. Headache was reported by 90 students (42.3%) with higher prevalence in men (44.8%) compared to women (41.8%). Migraine headache was the commonest headache subtype constituting 26.8% .Common triggers of headache attacks included sleep deprivation (65.6%), physical and mental fatigue (53.3%). Only 8.9% of students affected by headache sought medical assistance during acute attack.Conclusions: Our study found a relatively high proportion of migraine headache among nursing students with headache in this Nigerian University. Awareness of appropriate prophylactic and therapeutic medications was dismally low.Keywords: Prevalence, Headache, Nursing students & trigger factor