Parental awareness of headaches among elementary school-aged children in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional studyz.

CONTEXT

Headaches can negatively impact children's quality of life. Nevertheless, data on the parental awareness of childhood headache is very limited.

AIM

The objective was to estimate the prevalence of childhood headaches and parental awareness of headaches among their elementary school children.

SETTINGS AND DESIGN

A cross-sectional study was conducted among parents who were shopping in five malls in Riyadh between March and July 2019.

METHODS AND MATERIAL

Data were collected using a self-completed questionnaire, which included data on socio-demographic characteristics of the parents and their children, the presence of headache in children, and parental awareness about headache susceptibility, possible causes, associated symptoms, and management.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED

Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed as appropriate using the software SPSS.

RESULTS

A total of 292 parents were included. The majority were mothers (75.3%) in the age range of 26-45 years (83.2%). Approximately 62.3% of the parents reported headaches in their children. Approximately 47.6% of the headaches were attributed to "the use of electronic devices". The overall parental awareness of headaches was 55.1%, with scores being highest for management questions (67.0%) and lowest for susceptibility questions (45.4%). In a multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusted for socio-demographic characteristics, parental awareness was positively associated with the presence of children with headaches in the family and negatively associated with Saudi nationality of the children.

CONCLUSIONS

Parental awareness of childhood headache is insufficient. There is a need to increase the awareness of parents about childhood headaches and the problems associated with heavy electronic device use.