Religiousness and headache: is there a relation? Results from a representative sample of adults living in a low-income community.

Background: The use of religious behaviors to alleviate the consequences of stressful life circumstances is a frequent strategy employed by pain sufferers. Specifically in the field of headache research, to date, few studies have assessed spiritual and religious beliefs.

Objective: The objective of this article is to investigate the relation between religiousness (organizational, non-organizational and intrinsic) and headache disorders in a representative sample of adults living in a low-income community.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional, population-based study. In 2005, we conducted door-to-door interviews with 439 people, aged more than 18 years, randomly selected from a low-income community in Brazil. Four regression models were created to explain the relationships between religious involvement and headache, controlling for demographics, depression/anxiety and alcohol use and smoking.

Results: Of the 439 households contacted, at least one member from 383 (87.2%) households participated. We interviewed more women (74.4%) and more subjects aged 18-39 years. The mean age was 41.7 (SD 8.5) years. Bivariate analysis shows that high religious attendance, non-organizational religiousness and intrinsic religiousness were associated with presence of headache and presence of migraine. After the logistic regression models, only high non-organizational religiousness remained associated with presence of headache (odds ratio (OR): 1.22 (1.01-1.49)). All other religious variables were unrelated to the presence of headache and its types.

Conclusion: There is a modest relationship between high non-organizational religiousness and presence of headache. Headache sufferers may use coping strategies such as private religious behaviors to try to overcome suffering.