Training Course in Headaches - LMIC

The Course is aimed at health professionals interested in acquiring expertise on headache disorders. The syllabus encompasses the Course’s areas of interest, from Social Sciences to Basic Sciences, from Translational to Clinical Headache Medicine. This Collection supports and amplifies research related to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 3 Good Healthy Lives and Well Being.

Duration

The course entails a study period of 50 hours, including lectures, tutoring, e-activities, research activities, and individual study. Credentials to the course last for a full academic year.

Public Health Priorities

Headaches are listed in the latest Global Burden of Diseases 2019 survey cumulatively in 2nd place among all disabling diseases and in 1st place if only the female gender is counted. This calculation is based on YLD = years of life lost due to disability.

Social Burden

Recurrent headache is among the chronic conditions with the highest incidence, second only to Low Back Pain (Global Burden of Diseases 2019), with higher values in women (9.1%) than in men (7.8%). Migraine ranks first among young women under the age of 50. No other disease, communicable or non-communicable, is responsible for more years of healthy life lost in young women, although migraine does not cause premature mortality.

Economic Problem and Barriers to Treatment

Primary headaches and migraine are a public health problem with considerable costs for patients and society. This cost ranks among the highest of the major brain diseases, with more than dementia at 8.6 billion, psychotic/affective disorder at 18.7 billion, and stroke at 3.4 billion.

Sustainable Development Goal SDG3 as a Pillar of Education

Considering the burden of disease and the high costs associated with managing the condition, all prevention and early treatment strategies should be considered as they are likely to be cost-effective. Since chronic headaches are a major cause of disability and service utilization, early and correct identification of sufferers and appropriate treatment are desirable. This would undoubtedly reduce costs both directly, by reducing the use of specialist or hospital care, and indirectly, by reducing acute episodes and improving quality of life.