Disability, physician consultation, and use of prescription medications in a population-based study of headache

In a population-based telephone interview survey of 9,380 residents aged 12 to 29 yr in Washington County, Maryland, who reported having had a headache, 60% of females and 41% of males had had one or more headaches during the previous week; 14.4% of females and 6.0% of males in the study group had consulted a physician in the previous 12 months for a headache problem. The likelihood of consulting a physician differed according to the type of headache. Subjects with headache during the week before the interview meeting the criteria for certain migraine or certain mixed tension--migraine were twice as likely as subjects with all other types of headaches to consult a physician during the previous 12 months. Females with tension headache were considerably more likely than males with the tension headache to have consulted a physician during the previous 12 months. On the other hand, males with migraine headache during the previous week were more likely than females with migraine to consult a physician. Disability (defined as being absent from school or from work for all or part of the day) was relatively common among those subjects with a headache during the previous week (13.7% of females and 7.9% of males). However, even among those reporting disability as a result of their headache during the previous week, only 31% of females and 18% of males reported consulting a physician during the previous 12 months.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)