[The prevalence and character of primary headache in Japanese high school students].

We investigated prevalence and character of primary headache for 2,462 examples of high school student. An overall headache prevalence was 41.0 in boys, 55.3% in girls, and average of the headache onset was 12.7 in boys, 12.9 in girls years old. A prevalence of migraine is 5.5 in boys, 6.1% in girls according to ICHD-I and 13.7 in boys, 17.5% in girls according to modified ICHD-II diagnosis criteria. For the tension type headache, it was 23.0 in boys, 30.6% in girls according to modified ICHD-I diagnosis criteria. High school students with primary headache tend take painkillers easily, but are much less likely visit physicians (only 15.0%). Our data showed that the prevalence of headache especially migraine in Japanese high school student was almost similar to past world wide findings, and suggest that its impact on the quality of life can not be ignored. Therefore, headache education must be important and necessary in a high school.