Headaches have been found to be just as common in children who live in rural areas as they are among those from urban zones.

The finding, which some might find surprising, is from a paper being presented by Maltese respiratory experts in Amsterdam.

Their study concludes that headaches are more frequent in girls and those with rhinitis symptoms such as sneezing and a blocked or runny nose. However, mould and humidity in the bedroom and passive smoking also increase the risk of headaches in children.

Headache is in fact a very common complaint among the young, detected in questionnaires about respiratory conditions, so a survey was done to determine how many children aged between 10 and 15 have experienced one.

The parents of 2,051 children –  860 from Malta and the rest from Gela and the rural south in Sicily – were asked how often their children had headaches.

Data forms part of study on allergic respiratory disease in children

Nearly half the children complained of one. Three per cent had one every day, more than eight per cent had a headache often and nearly two-fifths experienced it once to three times every month.

The data, collected in 2012, forms part of an EU-funded study on the prevalence of allergic respiratory diseases in children in Malta and Sicily, named Respira. It is led by Martin Balzan, consultant respiratory physician at Mater Dei Hospital.

The paper is one of 12 which a team from the Department of Respiratory Medicine is this week presenting at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Amsterdam.

The team from the Department of Respiratory Medicine will also be presenting findings about the use of inhalers, the chemical fingerprint of particulate matter and its chemical component, among other topics.