The prevalence of headache and its most frequent causes among the children of school age in the schools of Kaunas city

Aim of the study. To determine the prevalence of headache and its most frequent causes among the children of school age who are learning at schools of Kaunas city. Methods. There was carried out a momentary quantitative research, and anonymous questionnaire survey. 933 students were surveyed. 834 of them have suffered from headaches during the last 6 months. 428 questionnaires of students, aged 11-18, from 11 schools of Kaunas city. Frequency of response out of distributed questionnaires to children who suffer from headaches is 54,68%. In order to complete a survey there were used questionnaires to describe headaches, VAS scale and the Questionnaire to evaluate the difficulties of children’s behaviour and emotions in accordance with T.M.Achenbach. Statistical data analysis was performed by using the statistical programme SPSS 17.0. Results. The prevalence of headache among the students of Kaunas city is 89,4%. Most frequently, students complain of a headache at least once a month (40%), more often girls than boys (42,6% and 36,2%). 11,7% of students suffer from headaches more than 15 days per month, out of them – 13,6% of boys and 10,4% of girls. Most of the respondents relate the origin of headaches to pubescence and state that most often they are caused because of lack of rest (64%), and nervous strain/ stress (56,1%). Even 62,6% of students state that headaches become more intense when doing any physical activity. Those who experience abuse and bullying at school (26,3%), feel permanent fair to experience failure (20,9%), feel alone at school (29,4%), are unhappy (19,6%), do not have close friends (39,1%) suffer from headaches more than 15 days per month (p<0,05). Students who complain of headaches indicate more problems in the questionnaire scales of children’s behaviour. Also, it was found out that children whose mothers graduated secondary schools or even did not do that (18,2%), do not have a permanent job (19,6%), and the main living source is income from a temporary job (38,9%; p