Migraine Prevalence among Al-Azhar University Students in Zagazig

Abstract

Background: As a neurological disorder, migraine is a major public health issue. Objective: To determine the prevalence of migraine headache among all grades of Al-Azhar University students in Zagazig. Patients and Methods: The study was observational descriptive questionnaire-based cross sectional design that was conducted on the population of students of the Faculty of Islamic Studies and Arabic Language for Girls and Faculty of Fundamentals of Religion for Boys, Al-Azhar University in Zagazig. The targeted students were from 1st to 4th year for the age group (18-22) from both genders. Results: There was a significant difference between students suffering from headache and other group without headache regarding age, residence, smoking and family history of headache or other neuropsychiatric illness. Regarding characters of headache, 47.02 % of our students had frequency of 2-4 attack of headache per month. 38.2% of them had long duration of headache that last for > 12 hours. Nausea and vomiting was a common symptom in 41.1 % of students. 68.9 of them reported a pulsating headache with moderate severity in 56.8 %, bilateral in 65.3% with visual disturbance in 26.7%, always worse by effort in 45.6 and always sensitive to light in 34.6% and noise in 30.4%. Conclusion: Headache was uncommon complaint among students of the Faculty of Islamic Studies and Arabic Language for Girls and Faculty of Fundamentals of Religion for Boys, Al-Azhar University in Zagazig, Sharkia Governorate similar to what had been obtained elsewhere. Also, migraine forms a major health problem among our students, which might impose an enormous burden on individual sufferers.