Prevalence of astigmatism in headache

Aim: To study the prevalence of uncorrected low grade astigmatism as the sole cause of headache. Materials and Methods: It is a prospective cross sectional study, conducted in the Department of Ophthalmology for 18 months. A total of 400 patients presenting with headache as the single complaint were enrolled in the study. All the patients were evaluated for presence of astigmatism with the help of visual acuity, retinoscopy, keratometry and post mydriatic test and then the follow up was done at 4, 8 and 12 week to see the status of headache. Results: The prevalence of uncorrected astigmatism among cases presenting with headache as the single complaint was 49.3%. Age of patients ranged from 14 to 35 years with a mean age of 22.85+6.43 years, however, proportion of patients with age <20 years was significantly higher among astigmatism cases (50.8%) as compared to that of patients without astigmatism (40.9%). Mean age of astigmatic patients was also lower (21.72+5.53 years) as compared to that of those not having astigmatism (23.94+7.03 years). Majority of patients were females (69.8%). Statistically no significant association between gender and astigmatism was seen. Conclusion: The findings of the study thus suggested that among cases presenting with headache as the sole cause, prevalence of astigmatism is quite high and treatment of uncorrected astigmatism brought about a phenomenal improvement in symptoms of headache.