Introduction

According to “The Global Burdon of Diseases Study” (GBDS; Vos et al 2019) HA’s are one of the two most common causes of disability in the 10-24 year age group.

Singhi and colleagues mention that HA prevalence rises from 3-8% of 3-year-olds to 57-82% of 8-15-year-old children (Singhi et al 2014).

Until the age of 11 there seems to be no gender differences, while in children older than 11 years HA seem to be more common in girls. Socioeconomic status has no relationship with pediatric HA; however, there is small evidence that HA is more common in single-parent households. Children with HA who present with other pain complaints, have more chronic diseases and psychologic problems. For example, children with migraine suffer more often from abdominal pain and back pain (Kröner-Herwig et al 2007). Therefore, children with migraine use more medical care than children with TTH (Arruda et al 2010).

The question arises, is there an increase in the prevalence of HA in children in the last decades? This question cannot be answered clearly. According to the GBDS HA in the age group 10-24 years was increasing from third most common disease in 1990 to second most common disease in 2019 (Vos et al 2019). In an overview article from Albers et al in 2015 they found evidence in 4 studies of some (varying) increase in the prevalence of HA in the last decades, with higher rates for girls but no geographic differences.

The diagnosis of HA can only be made by evaluation of the child’s signs and symptoms with the use of “The International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3^rd edition” (ICHD-3; Arnold 2018) which describes different HA types in adults and children.