title: Headache prevalence and characteristics among adolescents in the general population: a comparison between retrospect questionnaire and prospective paper diary data.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the present school-based study, a convenience sample of 237 adolescents in grade 6-9 and second year in high school (age 12-18 years) was recruited from a city and a smaller town. The aim of the study was to compare information on the prevalence and various characteristics of headaches not related to disease in a retrospect questionnaire and prospective daily recordings of headaches in a standard paper diary during a 3-week period.
  
  
  METHODS
  Besides headache severity, number of headache days, intensity levels and duration of headache episodes were estimated with both assessment methods. Most of the school children suffered from tension-type headaches and a smaller portion of migraine attacks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall results showed that school children significantly (p < 0.001) overestimated headache intensity in questionnaires as compared to diary recordings, whereas they underestimated frequency (p < 0.001) and duration (p < 0.001) of headaches. While the correlations on headache severity, frequency and duration between retrospect information in questionnaires and prospective diary recordings were low, the agreement varied with levels of headache characteristics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings concur well with results from a few similar community studies on headache complaints in school-aged children. We recommend that prospective recordings in diaries should be systematically used in clinical practice but also in epidemiological surveys to increase the validity and reliability in estimates of point prevalence of headache complaints in children and adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. bo.larsson@ntnu.no.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Larsson
authors.forename: Asa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fichtel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000453:epidemiology*; D020773:Headache Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012574:Schools; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires