OBJECTIVE

To study the prevalence of recurrent pain syndromes and their combinations in adolescents of different ages.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study included 4747 adolescents from Krasnoyarsk aged 12—18 years. There were 2246 (47.3%) boys and 2501 (52.7%) girls. Survey included questions about presence and frequency of pain (headaches, abdominal and back pain). The features of pain structure (rare, frequent) were analyzed. Types of headache (migraine or tension-type headache) were verified according to international criteria (International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3^rd edition, 2018). All indicators were compared in two groups: 12—14 (n=2265) and 15—18 years (n=2463). The data were analyzed in Statistica 12 using the Pearson χ² test.

RESULTS

The overall prevalence of recurrent headaches among adolescents was 44.4%, back pain — 21.5%, recurrent abdominal pain — 16.5%. Migraine was the most common primary cephalgia (49.6%), while tension-type headaches were less common (20.9%). The most common localizations of dorsalgia were cervical (27.9%) and lumbar (24.4%) spine, while thoracic spine was less common (13.1%). The prevalence of recurrent pain increases with age: for recurrent headaches — from 41.5% to 47.0% (p=0.0002), for recurrent abdominal pain — from 14.7% to 18.2% (p=0.0011), for dorsalgia — from 18.1% to 24.6% (p<0.0001). Increased prevalence of tension-type headache (from 12.5% to 22.3%) and migraine (from 45.8% to 50.2%) was noted by the age of 15—18 years. Regardless of age, recurrent abdominal pain and dorsalgia were more often associated with recurrent headaches.

CONCLUSION

Unified methodological approaches using generally accepted questionnaires and criteria for assessing the indicators are important for comparable results of epidemiological studies of recurrent pain.