Effect of episodic tension-type headache on the health-related quality of life in employees of a Brazilian public hospital.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of ETTH on HRQoL in a sample of employees of a Brazilian public hospital. METHOD Three hundred and sixty Mário Gatti Hospital employees were asked about headache occurrence in the previous 6 months and completed a SF-36 and a pain questionnaires concerning impact of pain (0 to 10 scale) on daily activities, work efficiency, leisure and social activities in previous six months. Two groups were studied: 1. Episodic Tension-type headache group: 127 employees -- 81 (63.8%) female and 46 (36.2%), male. 2. CONTROL GROUP 124, 71 (57.3%) female and 53 (42.7%) male. RESULTS ETTH had lowers scores than control in all domains of SF-36; in vitality and bodily pain the difference was statistically significant. CONCLUSION Our results indicate that ETTH suffers have impact on HRQoL predominantly in vitality. Psychological factors associated to pain may explain this finding.