Table 1.
Demographic features of participants and characteristics of headache experienced during the pandemic period
| (n = 1968) | COVID-19 positivea | No COVID-19b | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prior headache (n = 116) | No prior headache (n = 87) | p | Prior headache (n = 138) | No prior headache (n = 383) | p (1–3)† | p (2–4)‡ | ||
| Age year,mean (SD) | 39.7 (11) | 38.2 (11) | .370 | 41.0 (10) | 42.2 (11) | .061 | .175 | .004 |
| Sex (male %) | 36.2 | 46.0 | .104 | 22.9 | 31.6 | .000 | .001 | .008 |
| Healthcare worker (%) | 44.0 | 43.7 | .541 | 46.1 | 48.3 | .239 | .366 | .255 |
| Headache duration hours mean (SD) | 52.1 (57) | 45.3 (53) | .430 | 38.4 (53) | 45.9 (63) | .039 | .014 | .949 |
| Headache characteristics | ||||||||
| Pulsating % | 50.9 | 32.5 | .008 | 55.5 | 42.5 | .000 | .202 | .064 |
| Pressing % | 31.9 | 43.7 | .058 | 29.0 | 38.6 | .000 | .289 | .227 |
| Fiery % | 2.6 | 2.3 | .633 | 2.7 | 5.0 | .022 | .625 | .219 |
| Stabbing % | 12.9 | 16.1 | .330 | 11.1 | 11.2 | .497 | .315 | .142 |
| Accompanying symptoms | ||||||||
| Nausea % | 70.8 | 71.3 | .538 | 53.5 | 52.9 | .450 | .000 | .002 |
| Phonophobia % | 67.0 | 67.9 | .509 | 71.2 | 66.6 | .056 | .198 | .465 |
| Photophobia % | 63.9 | 63.0 | .508 | 60.5 | 51.2 | .002 | .276 | .038 |
| Osmophobia % | 39.0 | 50.0 | .090 | 30.4 | 28.5 | .292 | .044 | .000 |
| Allodynia % | 31.9 | – | – | 41.8 | – | – | .024 | – |
| Anosmia/ageusia % | 74.5 | 73.2 | .479 | 19.1 | 23.1 | .073 | .000 | .000 |
| Sore throat, rhinorrhea % | 62.2 | 70.4 | .152 | 41.8 | 54.4 | .000 | .000 | .006 |
| Stinging, burning, tearing in the eyes | 63.2 | 64.6 | .481 | 44.8 | 49.8 | .063 | .000 | .011 |
| Use of analgesics % | 84.3 | 79.8 | .257 | 82.8 | 69.8 | .000 | .389 | .042 |
| No response to analgesics % | 16.5 | 22.4 | .227 | 7.1 | 8.0 | .353 | .002 | .002 |
| Partial response to analgesics < 50%) % | 38.1 | 38.8 | .530 | 25.5 | 37.6 | .000 | .006 | .484 |
| Improved with analgesics > 50% | 32.0 | 25.4 | .231 | 26.1 | 27.4 | .362 | .129 | .436 |
| Completely recovered with analgesics % | 12.4 | 11.9 | .568 | 39.2 | 26.2 | .000 | .000 | .008 |
a Diagnosed by positive PCR test; b No COVID-19 symptoms or diagnosis; †p (1–3) p value between the patients with prior headache with or without positive COVID-19 test; ‡p (2–4) p value between the patients with no prior headache with or without positive COVID-19 test (significant test values are marked as bold)