Frequency of Headaches in Children is Influenced by Headache Status in the Mother

(Headache 2010;50:973‐980) Background.— Migraine aggregates within families. Nonetheless the familial aggregation of chronic daily headaches (CDH) and of episodic headaches of different frequencies has been very poorly studied. Accordingly herein we test the hypothesis that frequency of primary head...

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Published in:Headache 2010-06, Vol.50 (6), p.973-980
Main Authors: Arruda, Marco A., Guidetti, Vincenzo, Galli, Federica, Albuquerque, Regina C.A.P., Bigal, Marcelo E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child, Preschool
chronic daily headaches
Families & family life
family aggregation
family predisposition
Female
frequent headaches
Headache - epidemiology
Headache Disorders - epidemiology
Headache. Facial pains. Syncopes. Epilepsia. Intracranial hypertension. Brain oedema. Cerebral palsy
Headaches
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Mothers
Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes)
Neurology
Predictive Value of Tests
Prevalence
Surveys and Questionnaires
Vascular diseases and vascular malformations of the nervous system
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Summary:(Headache 2010;50:973‐980) Background.— Migraine aggregates within families. Nonetheless the familial aggregation of chronic daily headaches (CDH) and of episodic headaches of different frequencies has been very poorly studied. Accordingly herein we test the hypothesis that frequency of primary headaches aggregates in the family. Methods.— Sample consisted of 1994 children (5‐12 years) identified in the population. Validated questionnaires were used to interview the parents. Crude and adjusted prevalences of low‐frequency (1‐4 headache days/month), intermediate‐frequency (5‐9 days/month), high‐frequency (10‐14 headache days/month), and CDH (15 or more headache days/month) in children were calculated as a function of headaches in the mother. Results.— Frequency of headaches in the mother predicted frequency of headaches in the children; when the mother had low frequency headaches, the children had an increased chance to have low or intermediate headache frequency (relative risk = 1.4, 1.2‐1.6) but not CDH. When the mother had CDH, risk of CDH in the children was increased by almost 13‐fold, but the risk of infrequent headaches was not increased. In multivariate models, headaches in the children were independently predicted by headaches in the mother (P 
ISSN:0017-8748
1526-4610
DOI:10.1111/j.1526-4610.2010.01677.x