More headaches for city dwellers than rural

Long-term survey shows headaches take in Germany not to tend

Head and facial pain at rest in Germany is a serious health problem. 54 million German give headaches to the health problem in their lifetime. Extrapolations go in Germany daily from 17.000 sick leave days by headaches from. This resulted in 2005 to indirect costs of 2,3 billion euros. In Germany, pain medications are taken in more than three billion individual doses per year, of which approximately 85 percent due to headache.

"Stress is one of the most common triggers for headaches. Increasingly, it is discussed whether we make our way of life, the constant availability of each individual for personal and professional concerns and the many local tremendous intensification of work sick and lead to more headaches, "says associate professor Dr. Stefanie Förderreuther, neurologist and General Secretary of the German Migraine - and headache society (DMKG). A long-term survey of the company Boehringer, whose results were evaluated in cooperation with the DMKG and now published in the Journal of Headache and Pain, shows that headache in Germany tend not increase. Likewise, the survey found that people who live in cities with more than 50.000 inhabitants, statistically slightly more often from headaches suffer as people who live in the countryside.

In the years 1995 2009 to a large-scale consumer survey to each about 16.000 was in the collection annually performed to 18.000 people and asked the frequency of headaches. The proportion of respondents who complained of headache, was over the years relatively constant between 58,9 and 62,5 percent. An upward trend in headache prevalence is distinguished not from over the entire period. A significant difference was found: People in the city are more likely to do with headaches than people in rural areas. "This could well be an expression of a different lifestyle," observes Dr. Förderreuther. For headache patients could therefore well be better to look a little more peace in the area and to turn away from the typical big city stress.

Women suffer, according to the survey with 67,3 70,7 to percent more likely to have headaches than men (48,4 54,3 to%). Significant regional differences in the incidence of headache was not seen in the study, so, for example, no difference in the frequency of headache between the old and new states emerging.

Literature:

Straube A, Aicher B, Förderreuther S, Eggert T, Koppel J, Moller S, Schneider R, Haag G .: Period prevalence of self-reported headache in thegeneral population in Germany from 1995-2005 and 2009: results from annual nationwide population- based cross-sectional surveys. J Headache Pain. 2013 14 February; 14 (1): 11

Source: Munich [DMKG]