Self-management of headache: a cross-sectional survey in the general public of Islamabad

Objectives: to quantify the frequency of self-management for headache by adult population aged >18 years in urban and rural islamabad. methods: the cross-sectional study using systematic sampling of households was conducted in i-8 sector of islamabad and its outskirts (in nurpur shahan) from march to september 2011. it comprised 248 individuals above 18 years of age who were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. spss 16 was used for data analysis. results: of the total, 136 (54.8%) were males and 112 (45.2%) were females. the overall mean age was 32±12.5 years, and 218 (87.9%) suffered from headache. out of those suffering from headaches, 178 (81.7%) employed selfmanagement. pharmaceutical drugs (n=155; 87.1%) were the commonest modality employed, while vitamins (n=6; 3.4%), massage (n=8; 4.5%), herbal remedies (n=4; 2.2%) and homeopathic medicines (n=5; 2.8%) were infrequently utilised. acetaminophen (panadol) was the commonest pharmaceutical drug used (n=91; 58.7%), followed by salicylic acid (aspirin) (n=46; 29.7%). self-management was slightly more frequent among males (n=95; 53.37%) and in the above-matriculation group (n=103; 57.8%). a total of 151 (84.7%) people claimed to be satisfied with their self-management. conclusion: self-management of headaches is highly prevalent among the general public. the majority opts for pharmaceutical drugs, mostly preferring acetaminophen. most are satisfied with their self-management.