Familial occurrence of headache

Abstract

Associations between the occurrences of headache among parents and their offspring during a 7-year follow-up were studied. Data were collected using a prestructured questionnaire from a representative population-based sample of 1443 families expecting their first child. Seven years later, another questionnaire was sent to 1132 families still included in the study. Questionnaires were returned by 968 families. One or either of the parents had experienced frequent headache in 47% of families (34% of the mothers and 19% of the fathers) before pregnancy. Of the 6-year-old children, 15% had headache disturbing daily activities. Mother's prepregnancy headache was a clear predictor of her child's preschool headache (p=0.006, OR= 1.7, 95% CI 1.2-2.4). In the clinical interview, the children with headache more often had first-degree and second-degree relatives with headache than the control children.