Studies of headache risk factors are numerous but their results are based on clinics and hospitals. Few data have been reported in children. No data are available regarding migraine and tension-type headache risk factors among Iranianchildren. Therefore we determined the sociodemographic risk factors of migraine and tension-type headaches and their correlations in schoolchildren.

This study was a matched case-control method using the prevalence study data. The subjects were the patients with migraine and tension-type headache diagnosis (38 schoolchildren with migraine and 122 with tension-type headache). Each case was matched by school, sex and age, for migraine cases three controls and for tension-type headache cases two controls who had never been diagnosed as migraine or tension-type headache were chosen. Cases and controls for migraine and tension-type
   headache were compared separately for family history of headache , atopic diseases, sleep disorders and socioeconomic class. Conditional logistic regression was used for data analysis.

Odds ratio for migraine in schoolchildren who had positive family history of headache was 8.4 (95% CI, 2.8 to 25.4) and for tension-type headache was 2.9 (95% CI, 1.7 to 4.9). The odds ratios for migraine and tension-type headache in students who had abnormal sleeping pattern were 5.6 (95% CI, 1.3 to 20.8) and 4.4 (95% CI, 2.2 to 8.4) times higher than those with normal sleeping pattern. OR of migraine and tension-type headache for atopic diseases were estimated as 15.4, 2.05, respectively. Migraine and tension-type headache were not significantly associated with other factors.

It is concluded that family history of headache and sleep disorders had most significant effects on occurrence of migraine and tension-type headache in school children.