Stress and headaches in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic

PLoS One. 2023 Nov 22;18(11):e0288745. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288745. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

With regards to the relationship between mental and physical health conditions, some studies predict increased headache frequency as a result of exposure to stressful situations. Thus, the purpose of our study was to investigate whether headache characteristics among a sample of university students (N = 234) correlated with fear of COVID-19, stress and quality of life vis-à-vis the pandemic. We found statistically significant positive correlations between headache frequency and both general stress and quality of life. Further, results from a multiple regression analysis suggested that fear of COVID-19 did not account for incremental variance in headache intensity. Explanations for our key findings, limitations of our study, and future directions for post pandemic studies on headache experience are outlined.

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • Headache / epidemiology
  • Humans
  • Pandemics
  • Quality of Life
  • Students
  • Universities

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada in the form of an NSERC Discovery Grant to the senior author M. Mickleborough (RGPIN-2016-05811). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.