ABSTRACT
Objective This study examined the prevalence of migraine in nurses in Japan, which, to our knowledge, has not been documented in English. Methods From April to May 2021, we administered a questionnaire to 229 nurses working at Keio University Hospital to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of headache among nurses in Japan. Headaches were classified as migraine or tension-type headache (TTH) based on the International Classification of Headache Disorders-3 (ICHD-3). Results In total, 80 patients (34.9%) had primary headaches, including 47 (20.5%) with migraine and probable migraine and 33 (14.4%) with TTH and probable TTH. We found a significant difference in the Numerical Rating Scale score, nausea and vomiting, photophobia, phonophobia, and aggravation by routine physical activity between migraine and TTH. The specificities for a migraine diagnosis were 100% and 93.9% for nausea/vomiting and photophobia, respectively. Only 8.8% of patients had their headaches diagnosed by a physician. Conclusion Migraines have a high prevalence (>20%) among nurses and are often under-diagnosed. In many cases, headache-associated symptoms are more important than laterality or other characteristics for the diagnosis. Many nurses are treated for headaches without a correct diagnosis. Further education regarding primary headaches may be necessary for health practitioners as well as society.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Headache is an adverse event of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination. Whether patients with history of headache suffer more from vaccination-induced headaches is unknown. We aimed to uncover if headache patients develop more headaches after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination than healthy controls. METHODS: We performed a questionnaire survey for nursing staff in our hospital from April to May 2021. Based on baseline characteristics, we divided the participants into migraine, non-migrainous headache, and healthy control, and examined the occurrence and features of headache after COVID-19 vaccinations. RESULTS: We included 171 participants (15.2% migraine and 24.6% non-migrainous headache). Headache incidence after vaccinations was significantly higher in the migraine (69.2%) and non-migrainous headache (71.4%) groups than in the healthy control (37.9%) group. The incidence of headaches was significantly higher after the second dose compared to the first (45.6% vs. 20.5%). CONCLUSION: Migraineurs and non-migrainous headache participants developed more headaches compared to the healthy controls after COVID-19 vaccination.
