PAIN CATASTROPHIZING, ANXIETY, AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH HEADACHE BURDEN AND QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

Headache disorders are highly prevalent among university students and have a negative impact on academic achievement, mental health and quality of life. Psychological factors including pain catastrophizing and anxiety could play a role in headache induced disability, but evidence in Pakistan is limited. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between pain catastrophizing with anxiety, headache burden, and the quality of life of university students. The method used was Analytical Cross Section Study and the population consisted of University students of five public Universities in Pakistan. The participants filled a structured questionnaire that included socio-demographic data, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Headache Impact Test-6 (HIT-6), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF). IBM SPSS Statistics version 29 was used for descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation and multiple linear regression analysis. P values <0.05 were deemed significant.The 842 students were the ones that ended up in the final analysis. There was a significant positive correlation between headache burden and pain catastrophizing (r = 0.56, p < 0.001) as well as anxiety (r = 0.52, p < 0.001). Demographic and lifestyle factors did not affect the association between these two variables and headache burden. Headache burden was negatively correlated with quality of life (r = –0.61, p < 0.001), and was the most powerful predictor of poor quality of life in the regression model.Pain catastrophizing and anxiety were found to be positively correlated with headache burden and quality of life among University students. The results of this study emphasize the need to incorporate psychological evaluation and mental health care into university health services in order to minimize disability associated with headaches and enhance students' well-being.

This study aimed to assess the relationship between pain catastrophizing, anxiety, headache burden, quality of life and university students in Pakistan.