The relationship between headache and religious attendance (the Nord-Trøndelag health study- HUNT)
Author: Erling Tronvik 1102*, Torgeir Sørensen 3, Mattias Linde 12, Lars Bendtsen 45, Ville Artto 6, Katarina Laurell 78, Mikko Kallela 6, John-Anker Zwart 9 and Knut Hagen 12
Affiliation:
* Corresponding author: Erling Tronvik erling.tronvik@ntnu.no Author Affiliations 1 Norwegian National Headache Centre, Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway 2 Department of Neurosciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway 3 MF Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo, Norway 4 Department of Neurology, Danish Headache Centre, Glostrup Hospital, Glostrup, Denmark 5 University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark 6 Department of Neurology, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland 7 Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Neuroscience, Östersund Hospital, Östersund, Sweden 8 Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden 9 Department of Neurology and FORMI, Oslo University Hospital and University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway 10 Department of Neurology, Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway
Conference/Journal: The Journal of Headache and Pain
Date published: 2014
Other:
Volume ID: 15 , Pages: 1 , Special Notes: doi:10.1186/1129-2377-15-1 , Word Count: 240
Background
Religious belief can be used as a pain coping strategy. Our purpose was to evaluate the relationship between headache and religious activity using prospective data from a large population-based study.
Methods
This longitudinal cohort study used data from two consecutive surveys in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Survey (HUNT 2 and 3) performed in 1995–1997; and 2006–2008. Among the 51,383 participants aged ≥ 20 years who answered headache questions at baseline, 41,766 were eligible approximately 11 years later. Of these, 25,177 (60%) completed the question in HUNT 3 regarding religious activity. Frequent religious attendees (fRA) (used as a marker of stronger religious belief than average) were defined as those who had been to church/prayer house at least once monthly during the last six months.
Results
In the multivariate analyses, adjusting for known potential confounders, individuals with headache 1–14 days/month in HUNT 2 were more likely to be fRA 11 years later than headache-free individuals. Migraine at baseline predisposed more strongly to fRA at follow-up (OR = 1.25; 95% CI 1.19-1.40) than did non-migrainous headache (OR = 1.13; 95% 1.04-1.23). The odds of being fRA was 48% increased (OR 1.48; 95% 1.19-1.83) among those with migraine 7–14 days/month at baseline compared to subjects without headache. In contrast, headache status at baseline did not influence the odds of being frequent visitors of concerts, cinema and/or theatre at follow-up 11 years later.
Conclusions
In this prospective study, headache, in particular migraine, at baseline slightly increased the odds of being fRA 11 years later.
Keywords: Epidemiology; Religion; Spirituality; Headache; Migraine
full text: http://www.thejournalofheadacheandpain.com/content/15/1/1
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