Prevalence of headaches in children in schools: the case of primary schools in Libreville

Abstract

Abstract:Objective: To study the prevalence of headaches in schools. Patients and methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive and analytical study conducted in the ten schools of Libreville, from November 2013 to May 2014. We proceeded by exhaustive recruitment of all the students of the framework, fulfilling the inclusion criteria. We interviewed 5837 school children from 4 to 19 years interviewed and examined children from these schools about Results: The sample consisted of 2076 girls (51.0%) and 2861 boys (49.0%); the sex ratio was 0.96 for girls. Grade 5 students were the most represented. The prevalence of headache was 23.5%; 758 (25.6%) girls were prone to headache compared to 615 (21.5%) boys. The prevalence of headache increased with age, 10.6% at 5 years; 22.5% to 6-10 years; 25.9% to 11-15 years and 30.5% to over 15 years. The cephalalgic students were significantly older, ie 10 ± 2.4 years compared to 9 ± 2.5 years for the healthy students. Absenteeism was the most observed pass-through (68.7%), followed by lack of concentration (34.9%) and repetition (3.1%). Isolated headache accounted for 20.0%, compared to 80.0% of symptomatic headaches with the most commonly found oral lesions. Self-medication was the most common means of management (72.0%), with paracetamol as the molecule of choice (65.4%). Conclusion: Headache is a current symptom that is common and disabling. It constitutes a public health problem and must be investigated and adequately addressed to reduce their negative impact on the student's schooling and social life.