Relationship between stress and fatigue in university students with headache

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Considered one of the most common neurovascular disorders among university students, headache has an impact on quality of life. In addition, stress and fatigue can trigger and/or intensify headaches. Objective To investigate the relationship between fatigue and stress in university students with headache. Methods One hundred and forty-seven students aged between 18 and 44 years, regardless of gender, and regularly enrolled at the Universidade de Fortaleza participated in the study. Data were collected through a questionnaire developed by the researchers and through validated instruments for the diagnosis of headache, the impact being measured by the HIT-6 (Headache Impact Test), the assessment of fatigue using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FGS), and quality of life through the SF-36. Data were analyzed using the SPSS 20.0 program, using the chi-square test to analyze the association between the variables. A significance level of 5% was adopted. Results Headache complaints were present in 70.7% of the sample (n = 104), with secondary headache being more predominant (63.5%, n = 66), in females (79.8%,n = 83), with a mean age of 21.7 ± 4.0 years. The moderate intensity of the headache was reported by 60.6% (n = 63), highlighting the impact of this pain as very severe in 68.3% (n = 71) of the participants. Students with headache had more symptoms of stress (30.5 ± 7.6; p < 0.004) and fatigue (4.0 ± 1.4; p < 0.040). Conclusion An expressive number of headache cases was found, mainly in females, related to symptoms of stress and fatigue, impacting the quality of life of these university students.