Headache Education for General Public by Leaflets Distribution During COVID-19 Vaccination and School-Based On-demand E-learning in Japanese One City -Itoigawa Geopark Headache Awareness Campaign-

Abstract

Objective Headache is a common public health problem, but its burden could be avoided by raising headache awareness and the appropriate use of acute medication and prophylactic medication. Few reports on raising headache awareness in the general public have been reported, and there are no reports on headache awareness campaigns in Japan. We prospectively performed Itoigawa Headache Awareness Campaign from August 2021 to June 2022 and evaluated its effectiveness to the general public. Methods The main target group was the general public, especially those aged 15–64 y.o. We performed 2 projects; Project 1; Leaflet and paper-based headache awareness during COVID-19 vaccination, and Project 2; On-demand e-learning and online survey through schools. In these projects, we emphasize the 6 important topics for the general public, which were described in the Clinical Practice Guideline for Headache Disorders 2021. The awareness of the 6 topics among the 2 main projects’ cohorts before and after the campaign was evaluated. Results We obtained 4016 valid responses in project 1 and 2577 in project 2; thus, 32.23% of the working-age population of Itoigawa city experienced these projects. The ratios of individuals who know the 6 topics significantly increased after the 2 projects from 7–40% to 64–92% (p < 0.001, all). Conclusions We conducted this Itoigawa Headache Awareness Campaign through 2 main projects with improved ratios of individuals who know about the headache. The 2 methods of community-based awareness projects could raise headache awareness less costly and effectively.

Questionnaire-Based Survey during COVID-19 Vaccination on the Prevalence of Elderly’s Migraine, Chronic Daily Headache, and Medication-Overuse Headache in One Japanese City—Itoigawa Hisui Study

“…About 41% of them do not know the presence of prophylactic medications. To solve these problems, a headache awareness campaign for patients, non-headache sufferers, and doctors has also been performed [ 59 ]. However, the insufficient medical resources in rural Itoigawa and doctors’ and patients’ inappropriate attitudes toward their headaches may have influenced our survey result; this is one of the limitations.…”

Transient Global Amnesia Related to the Third Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) Vaccination

“…The true mechanism is uncertain, but the vaccine’s coagulopathy seemed hypothesized. Apart from TGA, some population-based surveys at the COVID-19 vaccination venues have been also reported [ 10 , 11 ], so further research on the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccination like this and their follow-up should be reported.…”

The First Case Series From Japan of Primary Headache Patients Treated by Completely Online Telemedicine

“…The median HIT-6 scores before, one, and three months after treatment were 63 (58-64), 54 (53-62), and 52 (49-54), respectively. MHD before, one, and three months after treatment were 15 (9-28), 12 (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17), and 2 (2-8), respectively. AMD before, one, and three months after treatment were 10 (3-13), 3 (1-8), and 2 (0-3), respectively.…”

“…These inadequate headache medical resources and OTC medicine use may lead to medication-overuse headaches (MOHs) [ 3 , 8 , 9 ] and chronic migraine development [ 10 ]. To improve this situation, a headache awareness campaign has been performed and has raised patient awareness of consulting doctors regarding their headaches [ 10 , 11 ]. Therefore, patients are gradually seeking medical attention; however, there are still few headache-specialized clinics, and patients with headaches do not want to take time off from work to consult doctors during the day on weekdays [ 11 ].…”