Dados do Trabalho

Título

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN HEADACHES AND EXCESSIVE DAYTIME SLEEPINESS IN MEDICAL STUDENTS

Introdução

Headaches are one of the most frequently seen symptoms by general practitioners, representing the most usual complaint in outpatient clinics. It is estimated that about 80% of the world’s population will suffer at least one headache episode in their lifetime. Its causes are multifactorial, which are related to life habits, organic and psychiatric diseases, genetic alterations, diet and sleep disorders.
Excessive Daytime Sleepiness (EDS) affects 10 to 25% of the general population and represents a chronic symptom characterized as the inability of keeping yourself awake and alert during daytime wakefulness, resulting in daytime sleepiness and unintentional sleep lapses. Such events may cause significant impairment in daily activities, especially in monotonous situations and may be precipitated by factors related to inadequate sleep hygiene such as: insufficient quantity and quality of sleep and irregular waking hours.

Objetivo

To evaluate the relation between Excessive Daytime Sleepiness and the prevalence of headache in medical students.

Métodos

One of the evaluation methods used for EDS is the Epworth Sleepiness Scale which assigns a score to an individual's chance of falling asleep in various everyday situations. The sum of these values greater than 10 is attributed to the presence of possible sleep disorders.
308 self-administered questionnaires constituted by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale and questions about the presence of headache were given to medical students from first to fourth year of the Centro Universitário Lusíada, in the city of Santos, between August 26 and August 30 of 2019.

Resultados

Out of the 308 students submitted to the questionnaire, 163 obtained a score higher than 10 by the Epworth Scale. The general prevalence of headaches in this same group was 63% (102). The 145 students who got a score of 10 or less by the Epworth Scale have a prevalence of headache of 56% (81). Literature data indicate the worldwide prevalence of headache corresponds to about 47% of the world population.

Conclusões

From the data obtained, a relatively high prevalence of headaches was demonstrated in students with signs of excessive daytime sleepiness when compared to the group without EDS and also to the world’s statistic. Further studies are needed to measure the relationship between headache and excessive daytime sleepiness to better understand the relationship between the two variables.

Palavras-chave

Sleepiness; Headaches; Students