title: The relationship between headache and religious attendance (the Nord-Trøndelag health study-HUNT).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Religious belief can be used as a pain coping strategy. Our purpose was to evaluate the relationship between headache and religious activity using prospective data from a large population-based study.
  
  
  METHODS
  This longitudinal cohort study used data from two consecutive surveys in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Survey (HUNT 2 and 3) performed in 1995-1997; and 2006-2008. Among the 51,383 participants aged ≥ 20 years who answered headache questions at baseline, 41,766 were eligible approximately 11 years later. Of these, 25,177 (60%) completed the question in HUNT 3 regarding religious activity. Frequent religious attendees (fRA) (used as a marker of stronger religious belief than average) were defined as those who had been to church/prayer house at least once monthly during the last six months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the multivariate analyses, adjusting for known potential confounders, individuals with headache 1-14 days/month in HUNT 2 were more likely to be fRA 11 years later than headache-free individuals. Migraine at baseline predisposed more strongly to fRA at follow-up (OR = 1.25; 95% CI 1.19-1.40) than did non-migrainous headache (OR = 1.13; 95% 1.04-1.23). The odds of being fRA was 48% increased (OR 1.48; 95% 1.19-1.83) among those with migraine 7-14 days/month at baseline compared to subjects without headache. In contrast, headache status at baseline did not influence the odds of being frequent visitors of concerts, cinema and/or theatre at follow-up 11 years later.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this prospective study, headache, in particular migraine, at baseline slightly increased the odds of being fRA 11 years later.
authors.affiliation: Norwegian National Headache Centre, Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway. erling.tronvik@ntnu.no.
authors.forename: Erling
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tronvik
authors.forename: Torgeir
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.forename: Mattias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Linde
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bendtsen
authors.forename: Ville
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Artto
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Laurell
authors.forename: Mikko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kallela
authors.forename: John-Anker
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Zwart
authors.forename: Knut
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hagen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012067:Religion