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Predictors of headache 22 years after hospitalization for head injury.

Nestvold K, Lundar T, Mowinckel P, Stavem K

Norwegian Health Services Research Centre, Lørenskog, Norway. knut.nestvold@ahus.no

OBJECTIVES: To assess predictors of headache in patients who had sustained a head injury 22 years earlier. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire about headache was sent to 361 subjects hospitalized for head injury in 1974-1975. RESULTS: A total of 249 patients (69%) responded to the questionnaire. The prevalence of headache >14 days a month last year was 11%. In multivariate logistic regression analysis female sex (OR = 3.4, 95% CI 1.2-9.6), severe headache 3 months after the head injury (OR = 10.6, 95% CI 2.6-43.5) and psychiatric disease (OR = 2.9, 95% CI 1.1-7.7) predicted chronic headache. There was no significant association between chronic headache and post-traumatic amnesia or other trauma-related variables. CONCLUSION: Female sex and headache 3 months after the head injury were the strongest predictors of long-term headache, while there was little association between long-term headache and trauma variables.

Published 3 June 2005 in Acta Neurol Scand, 112(1): 13-8.
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