HEADACHE AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN MEDICAL GRADUATION

Abstract

Introduction: Headache is a disease with high prevalence, frequent in the years of greater productivity and it generates impact on daily life activities, just as absenteeism and job loss. Stress and lifestyle are important factors for this pathology. Objective: To establish the relation between quality of life and headache among medical students. Methods: 03 questionnaires (SF-36, EPS-10 and a questionnaire made by the researchers) were applied to 200 medical students from a private university. Results: We found that 198 students had experienced headaches throughout life, among them, 148 had at least one episode in the previous month, 148 participants related headache with stress and 137 showed some degree of functional loss. We have seen that, according to the SF-36 questionnaire, the worst grades were related to vitality aspects (50.35 %) and limitations for emotional aspects (51.5 %). In the EPS-10 scale, whose variation is 0 to 40, the overall average obtained was 26.87 showing high prevalence of stress. Conclusion: In this population there is a high prevalence of headache as well as an increased perception of stress, a decrease in quality of life and an association between both. It was also demonstrated that the change in quality of life is linked mainly to emotional issues and vitality.