Prevalence of headache among medical students in Universitas Udayana, Denpasar, Bali-Indonesia

Introduction: Headache among medical students is common. The study from the population estimated that the prevalence of headache reached as many as 12 to 18%, depending on the type of the study. Migraine was frequently found among medical students and related to academic underachievement and limiting daily activity. We would like to identify the prevalence and nature of headache among medical students in Udayana University Denpasar, as well as its impact on their quality of life as a whole. Methods: This was an analytical cross-sectional study, involving medical students of second and sixth semester, Faculty of Medicine Udayana University. The study participants were randomized using random number generator and asked to fill in the multiple questionnaires of various parameters of headache profiles, as well as HIT6 score. All data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 20. Results: According to HIT6 questionnaire results, more than half of study participants experienced a certain impact of their headache in their life, with more than 10% of subjects felt substantial and severe implications. More than 80% of study participants experienced headache during the past one year and approximately 67% of them experienced headache within the past 1 to 3 months. The majority (50.8%) of subjects reported headache of pulsating in nature and 78% experienced headache recurrence for up to 5 times a month. Almost half of them (41.3%) experienced impaired activity to a certain extent. More than half (55%) of subjects found their headache so debilitating that they took sick leave of at least one day. Conclusion: Headache was prevalent among medical students, regardless of their age, gender, and socio-economic status. Although generally mild in intensity, given the nature of its recurrency and debilitating painful quality, medical students often took a leave of absence from class for one or more days, thus potentially impairing the quality of life and academic performance to a certain extent.