Prevalence and factors affecting headache in Turkish schoolchildren.

BACKGROUND: Headache is a public health problem affecting life quality negatively. The present cross-sectional, selective (2nd-5th grades) study was conducted to determine the prevalence of recurrent headache in schoolchildren in Mersin, a city of Turkey. METHODS: A stratified sample of 5777 students was selected to be representative of the city's schoolchildren population. After the data quality control process, the study sample was reduced to 5562 schoolchildren. RESULT: The prevalence of recurrent headache was 49.2% (2739/5562). Among the studied population 24.7% had tension-type headache and 10.4% had migraine. Girls had significantly more frequent headache than boys. Binary logistic regression analysis found that increasing age, female gender, low socioeconomic status of family, low education level of mother, and positive family history of headache (father, mother, siblings, second degree relatives) had a statistically significant effect on the presence of headache in children. Additionally, having travel sickness had a statistically significant effect on schoolchildren headache (P = 0.000). CONCLUSION: Headache is a common health problem among schoolchildren in Mersin, which merits increased attention and detailed multicentre epidemiological and clinical studies.

A cross-sectional prevalence study of depression at various times after delivery in Mersin province in Turkey.

BACKGROUND: Postpartum depression (PPD) is defined as a major depression occurring after delivery. Depression in mothers postpartum may affect the development of the infant and life quality of the mother negatively. In this study, PPD prevalence in the first 2 months after delivery was compared with the prevalence in later periods. METHODS: This study was conducted in 2001 in the province of Mersin in Turkey. In-home questionnaires were given to nonpregnant married women age 15-44 years from primary healthcare centers identified through a multistage, stratified sampling method. Depression was defined as a score of 13 or higher on the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS). RESULTS: Data were available on 1447 women. PPD prevalence was 29.0% at 0-2 months, 36.6% at 3-6 months, 36.0% at 7-12 months, and 42.7% >or= 13 months postpartum. PPD prevalence in the 0-2-month postpartum period was lower than in the other groups (F = 4.6, p < 0.01). The prevalence increased with the time since delivery. When compared with the prevalence in months 0-2, PPD risk was 1.41 times greater in months 3-6, 1.37 times greater in months 7-12, and 1.82 times greater in months >or=13 (chi-square for trend test = 11.7, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In this Turkish population, PPD prevalence was substantial at all time points. The prevalence was at its lowest level before the second postpartum month and increased with time. The decrease in the intensive social and physical support given to the mother immediately after delivery may explain this trend.