Prevalence of Tension Type Headache among Young Adults and Their Gender Difference on Percieved Stress Scale: A Comparative Study

Background: Tension-type headaches (TTH), together with migraines, are the most common primary headaches, affecting 80% of the general population. Stress is known to be a contributing factor to chronic tension-type headache (CTH), with research indicating that mental stress is the most commonly reported trigger and aggravating factor of a CTH episode. The study was conducted to find out the prevalence of TTH among youths of 18-25 age reporting frequent headache and to compare the perceived stress level among the diagnosed male and females of TTH. Methods: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) rating and an IHS (International Headache Society) TTH Diagnostic questionnaire were used in this study. A sample of 150 students including 75 males and 75 females in the age group of 18-25 years complaining of frequent headache were taken from different colleges and universities located in Rewari district of Haryana. In the second phase, only the diagnosed cases of tension type headache participated in the study and fill the perceived stress scale questionnaire. After data collection, analysis of data using SPSS software was done which then further help in testing the hypothesis and extracting the result and inferences. Descriptive analysis of quantitative data expressed as mean and standard deviation. Mean and Chi square test were used for comparison of individual on quantitative parameters between groups. P value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean age of subjects with TTH was 22.79 ±2.14. Prevalence of TTH among frequent headache sufferers is 68%. Out of 68% TTH cases 66.7% subjects have episodic TTH and 33.3% have chronic TTH. Value of PSS * Gender Pearson chi square is 5.151 at a significance value of .076 and it shows that there would be no significant differences exist between males and females on perceived stress score. Conclusion: TTH is more prevalent among females as compared to males. No significant differences exist between males and females on perceived stress scores.