Population-based pace study: lifetime and past-year prevalence of headache in adults.

Primary headache prevalence in the adult Italian general population has been little studied so far. This is an observational, cross-sectional, population-based study conducted in a subject sample that was representative of the city of Parma's general population >or=age 18. The lifetime prevalence of headache was 69.1%, i.e. 75.8% in women and 60.6% in men; the past-year prevalence of headache was 42.8%, i.e. 52.0% in women and 31.1% in men. Most people suffer from one headache subtype. Headache past-year prevalence decreases with age, both in men and in women. After 60, the likelihood of suffering from headache is low. In more than 80% of cases, headache starts before age 40 and, therefore, it is not very likely for people to develop headache at an advanced age (>50 years). This is the first population-based study conducted in Italy on a sample aged >or=18 since the publication of the IHS diagnostic criteria in 1988.

Population-based pace study: headache frequency and disease perception in adult subjects with headache.

Headache is a disorder that has a very negative personal and social impact. This is an observational, cross-sectional, population-based study conducted in a subject sample (n = 904) that was representative of the town of Parma's general population aged 18 and over. The aim of this study, which is a part of a larger project, was to assess the frequency of headache and the disease perception of subjects with headache during the past year (n = 387). The average number of headache days in the past year was 34.9 days and it was comparable in men and in women: 49.9% of subjects had 1-12 days of headache in the past year, 34.9% had 1-52 days, 11.9% had 53-180 days, and 3.4% had more than 180 days. Only three subjects had headache every day during the past year. Only one-third of the subjects with headache in the past year considered themselves headache sufferers. The analysis by gender showed differences between men and women: although the average number of headache days in the past year was comparable in the male and female populations, women considered their headache a disease more often than men did. In addition, the percentage of men who considered their headache a disease did not increase with the increase in the number of headache days in the past year. More in-depth studies on this important aspect are needed.