Abstract

Objective:
This study aimed to assess the community awareness towards medication overuse headache (MOH), estimate people at risk of developing MOH and to identify the potential factors that affect awareness towards MOH.
Methods:
A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in health care settings in Jouf region. The data were collected by interviewing patients using a structured questionnaire.
Results:
A substantial proportion of participants (89%) had not heard about MOH before. Tension-type headache was the most prevalent primary headache diagnosis (58%), the majority of participants experienced headaches 3-7 days per month (40.7%). Acetaminophen was the most common chronically used analgesic among primary headache patients.
Conclusion:
Migraine headache patients were considered at high risk to develop medication overuse headache. A significant association was observed between primary headache diagnosis and the perceived safest longest duration to use analgesics.

Key words: Jouf region, medication overuse headache, headache, awareness, risk assessment