The study demonstrated a high prevalence of migraine and a very high prevalence of headache on  ≥15 days/month, and revealed unmet health-care needs of people with headache in Russia.

Headache is common, burdensome and costly in Russia and, manifestly, poorly mitigated by existing healthcare. Structured healthcare services for headache need to be urgently put in place.

We concluded that the questionnaire can be utilized in a population-based countrywide survey of the burden attributable to primary headache disorders in Russia.