Two hundred persons, randomly chosen out of 3,067 who had answered a headache questionnaire modified from Waters, were summoned to an interview and an examination performed by a neurologist. The aim was to obtain prevalence readings for different types of headaches in an unselected population. Simple blood studies and plain skull and cervical spine radiography were performed. The occurrence of headache was 77%, and the prevalence of migraine 9% in men and 28% in women. There was a higher prevalence of headache in women, accounted for solely by their higher frequency of vascular headaches, while the figure for tension headache was 35% for both sexes. Demographic factors did not influence the distribution of the headache types, except for a concentration of vascular headaches in women working in service occupations. A positive family history of migraine was reported significantly more often by persons with migraine than by others. The physical neurological examination, and the laboratory and X-ray investigations performed generally did not contribute to the diagnosis of the headache.

SYNOPSISInformation on the prevalence of headache and its characteristic features and the factor provoking it was collected using a questionnaire similar to that introduced by Waters. The questionnaire was posted to every inhabitant over 15 years of age in a defined urban and a defined rural area in northern Finland. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested by neurological examination of a random sample of 200 persons. The response rate was 74.0% in the urban and 79.5% in the rural area, a total of 3067 questionnaires being returned. The prevalence of headache in the year preceeding the survey was 73.1% in women and 57.6% in men. This difference was significant. At the same time the prevalence was slightly higher (p<0.05) in the urban than in the rural area. The percentage with headache was highest between 15 and 64 years of age in both the urban and the rural men and women, and declined sharply after 65 years of age. Only in men aged 15-24 years was it significantly more common in the urban area. Education, social class and mode of employment did not influence the prevalence of headache once pensioners were excluded. Headache was slightly more common in urban self-employed people and in urban employees, but equally common in urban and rural students, housewives and pensioners. It was significantly more common in married men and women. The percentage of women with headaches related to the menstrual period was low. The most common provoking factor was stress, the sauna-bath ranking second. No correlation was found between smoking habits and headache in this survey.

SYNOPSISIn a headache survey in which a self‐administered questionnaire was used, the respondents were asked to estimate work absence frequency, effect on daily activities and disability due to headache. Work absence was not a common occurrence. Only 2632018 respondents (13%) who suffered from headaches were absent from work one or more days during the previous year. Of these, absence was estimated at 1–3 daysyear in 41%, and 7 days or less, in 55%. 28% stated that they had been absent but were unable to estimate the number of days. Self‐employed persons had a higher percentage of absence than other employed categories, and the rural self‐employed and rural housewives had the highest percentage of absence. 22% stated that headache did not affect their work, 26% were able to carry on by easing their pace of work, and 47% were forced to rest or lie down during an attack. In a random sample of 154 personally examined headache sufferers, vascular headaches were more incapacitating, but did not cause more frequent absence from work.

SYNOPSIS Information on the prevalence of headache and its characteristic features and the factor provoking it was collected using a questionnaire similar to that introduced by Waters. The questionnaire was posted to every inhabitant over 15 years of age in a defined urban and a defined rural area in northern Finland. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested by neurological examination of a random sample of 200 persons. The response rate was 74.0% in the urban and 79.5% in the rural area, a total of 3067 questionnaires being returned. The prevalence of headache in the year preceeding the survey was 73.1% in women and 57.6% in men. This difference was significant. At the same time the prevalence was slightly higher in the urban than in the rural area. The percentage with headache was highest between 15 and 64 years of age in both the urban and the rural men and women, and declined sharply after 65 years of age. Only in men aged 15‐24 years was it significantly more common in the urban area. Education, social class and mode of employment did not influence the prevalence of headache once pensioners were excluded. Headache was slightly more common in urban self‐employed people and in urban employees, but equally common in urban and rural students, housewives and pensioners. It was significantly more common in married men and women. The percentage of women with headaches related to the menstrual period was low. The most common provoking factor was stress, the sauna‐bath ranking second. No correlation was found between smoking habits and headache in this survey.

In a community survey on headache in which a questionnaire was used, the responders were asked to state if their headaches were accompanied by symptoms usually associated with migraine. A random sample of 200 out of the 3,067 who returned the questionnaire were examined by a neurologist and the answers compared with those given in connection with the case history. Migraine features occurred sometimes in a very large percentage of the 2,018 who suffered form headache. When the answers were compared, "warning" and "nausea" occurring sometimes were reported significantly more often in the questionnaire. No difference was found when these features were reported as occurring usually or always. When interviewed by the neurologist, 20% of those with a clinical diagnosis of tension headache reported two of the three features "unilaterality", "warning" and "nausea", also. It is concluded that the questionnaire is a satisfactory tool if the aim is to select a population with distinct features of migraine, but the reliability rapidly decreases if efforts are made to include more elusive forms of the condition.