The Effect of Psychosocial Work Factors on Headache: Results From the PRISME Cohort Study.

Abstract

To investigate the cross-sectional and longitudinal association between psychosocial work factors, assessed as work-unit averages, and headache. For comparison, we also applied individual exposure measures. We used questionnaire-data on headache and psychosocial work factors (PWF). In total, 2247 employees were included in the cross-sectional analyses and 553 in the longitudinal analyses using work-unit averages. The corresponding numbers for the analyses using individual exposure measures were 4261 and 942 employees. Low skill discretion and low decision authority were most consistently associated with higher odds of headache across all analyses. Role conflicts, bullying, and effort-reward imbalance were associated with headache in some analyses. All PWF were associated with headache in cross-sectional analyses with individual exposure measures. This study partly supports the hypothesis of an effect of PWF, as a source of psychological stress, on the risk of headache.