Knut Nestvold1, Knut Stavem. 1. Norwegian Health Services Research Centre, Oslo, Norway. knut.nestvold@ahus.no
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Little information is available on long-term headache following head injury. We compared the prevalence of headache in a cohort with previous hospitalization for head injury and matched controls. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire about headache was sent to 361 patients who were hospitalized for head injury in 1974-1975 and 722 matched community controls. RESULTS: In multivariate conditional regression analysis among 192 responding case/control pairs, there was no evidence of higher odds of headache >or=1 day per month (odds ratio, OR 1.04, 95% CI 0.56-1.92, p = 0.90) compared with controls. However, there was a tendency to higher odds of headache >or=1 day per month among female cases than among controls (OR 2.03, 95% CI 0.94-4.39, p = 0.07). CONCLUSIONS: The study could not show increased odds of headache in a cohort 22 years following hospitalization for head injury, but it is possible that females are more likely to report long-term headache following head injury than matched controls. (c) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel.
OBJECTIVES: Little information is available on long-term headache following head injury. We compared the prevalence of headache in a cohort with previous hospitalization for head injury and matched controls. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire about headache was sent to 361 patients who were hospitalized for head injury in 1974-1975 and 722 matched community controls. RESULTS: In multivariate conditional regression analysis among 192 responding case/control pairs, there was no evidence of higher odds of headache >or=1 day per month (odds ratio, OR 1.04, 95% CI 0.56-1.92, p = 0.90) compared with controls. However, there was a tendency to higher odds of headache >or=1 day per month among female cases than among controls (OR 2.03, 95% CI 0.94-4.39, p = 0.07). CONCLUSIONS: The study could not show increased odds of headache in a cohort 22 years following hospitalization for head injury, but it is possible that females are more likely to report long-term headache following head injury than matched controls. (c) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel.