Predictors of headache 22 years after hospitalization for head injury.
OBJECTIVE
To assess predictors of headache in patients who had sustained a head injury 22 years earlier.


METHODS
A questionnaire about headache was sent to 361 subjects hospitalized for head injury in 1974-1975.


RESULTS
A total of 249 patients (69%) responded to the questionnaire. The prevalence of headache >14 days a month last year was 11%. In multivariate logistic regression analysis female sex (OR = 3.4, 95% CI 1.2-9.6), severe headache 3 months after the head injury (OR = 10.6, 95% CI 2.6-43.5) and psychiatric disease (OR = 2.9, 95% CI 1.1-7.7) predicted chronic headache. There was no significant association between chronic headache and post-traumatic amnesia or other trauma-related variables.


CONCLUSIONS
Female sex and headache 3 months after the head injury were the strongest predictors of long-term headache, while there was little association between long-term headache and trauma variables.
Nestvold
K
K
Norwegian Health Services Research Centre, Lørenskog, Norway. knut.nestvold@ahus.no
Lundar
T
T
Mowinckel
P
P
Stavem
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000647:Amnesia / Q000453:epidemiology; D015984:Causality; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D020773:Headache Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009664:Norway; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013995:Time