Prevalence of Headache and Related Factors in Erciyes University Medical Faculty Students

Headache is one of the oldest known symptoms in humans and headache disorders are among the most common diagnoses in neurology clinics. More than 90% of people experience a headache at least once in their lifetime. Medical students may frequently experience headache triggering situations such as insomnia, fatigue, and stress. The purpose of this research; The aim of this study is to examine the frequency of headache in Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine students, the nature of the pain in patients with headache and related factors.Materials-Methods: This descriptive study; It was conducted with medical faculty students studying at Erciyes University. In March 2019, 1602 students were enrolled in the medical faculty and all of them were planned to be included in the study and the sample size calculation was not made, and a total of 1296 people could be reached when the data collection phase was completed. The obtained data were evaluated in computer environment and p <0.05 values were accepted as significant in statistical analysis. Results: 46.5% of the participants in the study were men and 53.5% were women. 6.9% of the participants stated that they had a diagnosed headache disease, 31.7% stated that they had a headache at least once a week. The triggering factors were mostly; insomnia (77.4%), stresssadness (72.4%), fatigue (%70.0), noise (%59.4), study (%44.5). The frequency of headache is significantly higher in women, those with a family history and those living with their families. The mean severity score of those who describe sharp and throbbing pain, which is mostly seen in migraine, is significantly higher than the feeling of tension and heaviness. Conclusion: One-third of the participants stated that they experienced a headache once or more per week. A significant relationship was found between headache and the factors of gender, family history and place of residence. It has been determined that the factors that trigger pain are mostly insomnia, stress-sadness and fatigue. Medical students can be informed about the examination of headache complaints by the physician and the arrangement of necessary treatments, as well as training on sleep hygiene and coping with stress, and social support can be provided.