Prevalence of Facial Pain and Headache in Sweden.

2021 
AIMS To compare the prevalence of facial pain and headache across various regions in Sweden. METHODS This study involved a comparison of cross-sectional questionnaire studies over a period of 10 years including 128,193 individuals and assessed facial pain, pain on function, and headache. Participants included (1) all Public Dental Service patients aged 16 to 90 years in Vasterbotten (n = 57,283) and Gavleborg (n = 60,900); and (2) random samples of residents in Kalmar (n = 3,560) and Skane (n = 6,450). Facial pain and pain on function were assessed for all participants, and headache was also assessed for participants in Kalmar and Skane. Descriptive statistics were used to estimate unadjusted prevalence estimates and demographic characteristics. Prevalence estimates were adjusted for age and sex using weighted distributions from the 2015 data in the Swedish population registry before comparisons across the regions. RESULTS Overall, the prevalence of facial pain and headache were significantly higher in female than in male participants (P < .01). The standardized prevalence of facial pain was 4.9% in Vasterbotten, 1.4% in Gavleborg, 4.6% in Kalmar, and 7.6% in Skane. For headache, the standardized prevalence was 18.9% in Kalmar and 21.3% in Skane. In Skane, individuals with facial pain had a 15-fold higher odds of headache than those without. CONCLUSION In the present Swedish epidemiologic study, the prevalence of facial pain ranged from 1.4% in Gavleborg to 7.6% in Skane. Besides different sampling frames and other population characteristics, the presence of a high number of immigrants in Skane may account for some differences in pain prevalence across the Swedish regions.
    • Correction
    • Source
    • Cite
    • Save
    • Machine Reading By IdeaReader
    0
    References
    1
    Citations
    NaN
    KQI
    []