• Emina Sokolovic, Franz Riederer, Thomas Szucs, Reto Agosti, and Peter Stefan Sándor.
• Gilead Sciences Switzerland Sarl, Turmstrasse 28, CH-6300, Zug, Switzerland. franz.riederer@uzh.ch.
• J Headache Pain. 2013 Jan 1;14:29.

BackgroundThe objectives of this cross-sectional, observational study were to determine the prevalence of self-reported headache among the employees of the large Swiss university hospital, to measure the impact of headache using the MIDAS questionnaire, to assess current treatment and to estimate economic burden of headache considering indirect costs.MethodsA self-administered questionnaire was distributed internally to 2000 randomly selected employees of the University Hospital Zurich.Results1210 employees (60.5%) responded. Of the 1192 (98.5%) employees who provided sufficiently complete information, 723 (61%) reported at least one headache type in the last three months. The prevalence of migraine, and tension-type headache was 20% and 50%, respectively. Regarding the occupational groups, there was a trend that healthcare staff, administration employees, and medical technicians suffered more from headaches than physicians, correcting for age and sex. The economic consequences of lost productivity were calculated to amount to approximately 14 million Swiss Francs (9.5 million EUR), representing 3.2% of the overall annual expenditure of the hospital for personnel.ConclusionHeadache is highly prevalent among university hospital employees, with significant economic impact.

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