One in three kids may be having headaches

GOTTINGEN, Germany, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Family quarrels and a lack of free time promote headaches in children, researchers in Germany found.

The study, published in Deutshes Arzeteblatt International, found boys experiencing more than one family quarrel per week had a 1.8 times higher risk of developing headaches and boys who only sometimes had time to themselves had a 2.1 times higher risk of developing headaches.

The researchers associated parents giving either positive or negative reinforcement with headache frequency -- especially in girls. Parental responses raised girls' risk of recurrent headaches by 25 percent.

Gender also affected frequency overall, with twice as many girls as boys having a headache at least once a week, the researchers said.

Jennifer Gassmann of Gottingen University in Germany and colleagues focused on family and leisure factors as part of the larger study that collected data on more than 2,000 participants on a number of factors in four annual "waves" from 2003-2006.

The researchers found between 10 percent to 30 percent of children around the world complain of headache symptoms at least once per week.