Children commonly encounter primary headaches, with various factors playing a role in their onset. The daily routine notably contributes to the occurrence of primary headaches in children. This study aims to profile children experiencing headaches on weekends (WH) in comparison to those primarily having headaches midweek (MWH).Triadou, D.; Bar-Shalom, Y.; Pollak, M.; Gal, S.; Nathan, K.; Yakovlev, M.; Genizi, J. Weekend Headaches in School-Age Children. Healthcare2024,12,60. https:// doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12010060
Among adolescents in junior high and high school, there was more MWH, possibly attributed to academic stress, which increases with age. There is more pressure to achieve and less tolerance for failure. Adolescents may also be more manipulative than small children and complain of a headache for secondary gain. Chronic or recurrent pain may be associated with anxiety, depression, and behavior problems, which become more important as the child enters adolescence. Moreover, in the group of adolescents, there are other habits that might trigger the appearance of a primary headache, such as the consumption of coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, etc., that were not examined in our study. The use of these substances or withdrawal from them may cause headaches, as can be seen in adults [8,11,17,18]. A single study from Norway showed that among the teenagers, headaches appeared more in the afternoon, which they propose to be related to the accumulation of the academic load throughout the day and throug
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Before puberty, the prevalence of headaches among boys and girls is similar , but after this age, a significant increase in the frequency of headaches can be seen in girls . In a previous study that was performed on adults suffering from tension-type headaches, there was a rise in attacks during weekends . Another study reported that weekend headaches typically affected men more than women . In our study, however, WH were not more common among males (45% vs. 55%, p = 0.34). This might be attributed to the differences in triggers between children and adults.
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We requested our patients to outline specific triggers, such as academic stress, emotional stress, or daily habits, and subsequently compared these factors between the two groups (Table 2). It should be noted that each child may have several different triggers for the appearance of a headache during the study period, and they were not limited to finding a single trigger. Although we did not find any statistically significant difference between the groups, academic stress was reported more commonly among the group of children with MWH (48% vs. 35%) and was reported less in the WH group. Since the children do not go to school over the weekend, it is easy to understand this difference. However, it should be noted that those with WH also reported academic stress. In adults, occupational stress, which can correspond to academic stress in children, is assumed to be one of the main triggers for migraine attacks during the week . Previous studies reported academic stress as a leading fac
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However, in our study, academic stress was reported to be the least common headache trigger, especially during the weekends. As opposed to these findings, older studies showed that academic stress is a significant trigger for headaches in children . Possibly, nowadays other triggers, such as emotional stress, take higher importance as a trigger for headaches in
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