Relationship between stress and fatigue in university students with headache

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.