The authors of the work from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology analyzed 357 publications since 1961
Most publications dealt with adults inages from 20 to 65 years, but data on adolescents, children under 5 years of age and elderly people over 65 years of age were also taken into account. Building on a previous report from 2007, Lars Jacob Stoner and colleagues also measured how methods differed across studies. They modeled these differences and how they related to estimates of headache prevalence.
Most of the studies looked at the prevalence of headache over the past year. But there were data on headaches throughout life.
Based on 357 publications, the authorsestimated that 52% of the world's population experienced headaches during a given year, with 14% reporting migraines, 26% worse headaches, and 4.6% headaches on 15 or more days per month.
The authors also calculated that 15.8% of the world's population experience a headache almost daily and almost half of these people complain of migraine (7%).
All types of headaches were more common in women,than in men. This gap is most visible in migraines: 17% in women versus 8.6% in men, and frequent headaches lasting 15 or more days per month: 6% in women versus 2.9% in men .
Read more:
After ten years of work, scientists questioned the standard model of physics
There is another “planet” inside the Earth: how it saved nascent life
The temperature of Neptune began to fluctuate sharply: astronomers do not know why