Headaches, Personal Protective Equipment, and Psychosocial Factors Associated With COVID-19 Pandemic

In workplaces, where no pollution problems are\r\nreported, a significant share of indoor workers (6%\r\nof males, 9% of females) suffer “often, at least once\r\na week” from headaches attributed to the working\r\nenvironment.2\r\n This symptom is significantly associated\r\nwith occupational stress.3\r\n The individual characteristics of workers, in particular anxiety and depression,\r\nsignificantly influence the reporting of headache.4\r\nAmong health care workers, headache is associated\r\nwith occupational stress5\r\n and with sleep problems,6\r\n as\r\nwell as with anxiety and depression that were significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemics.7\r\nThis study did not take into account these variables.\r\nThis may be a major limitation because the study population was drawn from high-risk hospital areas such\r\nas isolation wards (designated as “pandemic wards”),\r\nthe emergency rooms and medical intensive care unit.\r\nIn these settings, workers are highly likely to experience emotional overload. The association between\r\nPersonal Protective Equipment (PPE) and headache\r\ncould be, therefore, spurious and the real factor should\r\nbe sought among the psychosocial factors associated\r\nwith the pandemic.\r\nFurthermore, the study is entirely based on what\r\nworkers remember of the situation before the epidemic,\r\nand this inevitably exposes to a possible recall bias.\r\nWe are convinced that the association between\r\nPPE and headache is worthy of controlled longitudinal\r\nstudies, which compare different types of PPE and take\r\ninto account all confounding factors.