title: Headache in a nonclinical population in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. A community-based study.
abstract: Headache is a common symptom that constitutes a major health problem to all countries in the world with a variable prevalence from about 20.2% in the African population to about 80% in populations of the civilized world. Community-based studies in African populations are still scanty, and the impact on health facility utilization and sickness absence from work is unknown. After a simple random selection, 1540 urban workers and students of higher education completed a standardized self-administered questionnaire on headache. A total of 815 (52%), (620 (51%) men, 195 (60%) women) admitted to having suffered a headache requiring medication or medical consultation in the last year. Of these, 366 (23.7%) had recurrent headache not attributable to systemic disease. Of the total with recurrent headache, there was a significant preponderance of women over men with sex prevalence of 28.9% and 22.4%, respectively (X2 P = 0.0001). Combined vascular-muscular-type of headache exceeded all types of headache, accounting for 35.8% of cases, followed by migraine accounting for 30.8% of cases. Organic disease was rare, accounting for 8.5% of cases, and psychogenic causes of headache were even rarer at less than 1.2% of cases. Within 2 months of onset of recurrent headaches, over 32% of sufferers had utilized the health facility at their place of work or study. A significant number of cases (175) had an average of 11.3 lost work days per year in comparison to a control group of 154 persons with an average of 5.7 lost work days per year for reasons other than headache (X2 P = 0.0005).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Neurology Clinic, Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Matuja
authors.forename: I B
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Mteza
authors.forename: H T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Rwiza
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009790:Occupations; D015995:Prevalence; D012008:Recurrence; D012737:Sex Factors; D013636:Tanzania / Q000453:epidemiology; D014504:Urban Health