Headache-Related Disability among Undergraduate Students of Health Profession in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Headache is one of the most common neurological disorders frequently complaints during medical curriculum. It has a major impact on the academic performance of undergraduate health professional students. Objectives: The objective of the study was to determine the types of disability due to headache and the impact of headache among undergraduate students of health professions in Bangladesh. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted through the purposive sampling technique. The study was carried out between July 2022 and June 2023. A headache disability index (HDI) questionnaire was used to assess the type of disability. Data was collected from 303 medical students, and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 was used for analysis. Results: The participant’s age mean ± SD was 22.35 ± 2.163. The majority of the participants (57.8%) attended from the age range between 18 and 22 years. The maximum number of participants were female (61.1%), and 87.1% were from urban areas. The majority of the students (19.8%) were from physiotherapy, and 66.7% were within normal weight. The majority of the participants (22.40%) had moderate-type disability. The association between gender of the participants and the severity of headache (p = 0.001) and between gender of the participants and disability (p = 0.001) was statistically highly significant. It was also observed a significant association (p = 0.001) between the severity of headache and disability of the participants. Conclusion: The findings revealed that headache is a common complaint among undergraduate health professional students. The majority of the participants suffered from moderate disability due to headache in Bangladesh.