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Do you often have headaches? You are not alone since according to a recent study, headaches and migraines affect one out of two people each year, and one out of six people every day!
More than half of the world’s population has suffered from headaches
Headaches manifest in many ways, with localized pain in the skull or diffuse, a feeling of pressure or a ringing head, even sore eyes. For the first time in the world, a prevalence study carried out by Norwegian researchers has published figures on this disease which affects, according to it, 52% of individuals.
They also reveal details about the nature of the headaches:
- 26% would suffer from tension headache;
- 14% are affected by a migraine type headache;
- 4.6% of people affected by headaches are affected for at least 15 days per month.
Furthermore, they found that one in six people suffer from a headache every day, which represents 15.8% of the world’s population.
Who is most affected, men or women?
According to the researchers’ observations, headaches are more frequent in women, 57.8% of them are affected against 44.4% of men. It could be that a link exists with the fluctuation of female sex hormones, especially estrogen.
As for migraine, it affects young adults more, especially young women. However, it can affect people of all ages.
Consult a GP online
To be able to quantify and give the prevalence of headaches on a global scale, epidemiologists combined 357 studies, then analyzed the data set of each between 1961 and 2020.
However, this study has certain limitations. Indeed, the definitions of headaches vary from one study to another. Furthermore, certain parameters were not taken into account, such as heredity, atmospheric pollution, exposure to light or stress.