Frequency of migraine among an unselected group of employees and variation of prevalence according to different diagnostic criteria.

A survey was carried out among 940 employees in a mail administration building in Hamburg, Germany to determine the prevalence rates of headache and of migraine, based on several definitions. Headache symptoms were assessed by means of questionnaires, which were returned by 92% of the addressed persons and properly evaluable in 87.8%. When 3 out of the following 4 criteria a) occurrence of headaches in attacks b) unilaterality of pain c) preceding visual disturbances d) pulsating character were required to diagnose migraine, prevalence rate was low (5.3%). It rose dramatically when only 2 of these requirements had to be met (18.0%); based on the definition that 2 of a), b) or c) had to be fulfilled, the prevalence rates were 13.1% for females, 5.6% for males. There was no difference in frequency of migraine between the two large income classes of mail employees. In accordance with other studies we found that only 57.5% of migraine patients had ever consulted a doctor for their headache; only 13.7% had done so within the last half year.