Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Order a digital copy of the thesis here
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Mattias Linde, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
- Second opponent: Associate Professor Rigmor Højland Jensen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Associate Professor Jon Ramm-Pettersen, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Angelika Gabriele Sorteberg, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Bendik Slagsvold Winsvold, Oslo University Hospital
Summary
Headache disorders are an important public health concern, but reliable and up-to-date prevalence estimates for Norway are lacking. This thesis “prevalence and burden of headache disorders in Norway”, within the field of headache research and public health, aimed to estimate the prevalence of migraine, tension-type headache (TTH) and probable medication-overuse headache (pMOH) among Norwegian adults, and to examine how prevalence varies across demographic and socioeconomic groups.
The thesis is based on PopHEAD, a population-based cross-sectional study conducted in Vestfold and Telemark in 2023. A random sample of 28,753 people aged 18–70 years was invited to complete a digital Norwegian version of the HARDSHIP questionnaire. Headache diagnoses were assigned using a standardized algorithm based on the International Classification of Headache Disorders, third edition, and validated through telephone interviews in a subsample. Prevalence estimates were adjusted for age, sex, measurement error and selection bias.
Among 8,265 respondents, the adjusted one-year prevalence was 20.3% for migraine, 47.9% for TTH and 5.9% for pMOH. Prevalence patterns differed between disorders: migraine and pMOH were more common among people with lower education, while TTH was most prevalent among those with higher socioeconomic status. The study also demonstrated that the questionnaire-based diagnostic tool could identify headache disorders with robust accuracy, and confirmed that the PopHEAD questionnaire is a valid tool for identifying individuals with migraine, TTH and pMOH.
The findings provide updated, validated prevalence estimates for major headache disorders in Norway and highlight differences across population groups. These data can inform public health planning and the allocation of health services for headache management.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.