Psychological well-being in older adults suffering from chronic headache

Objective. - The aim of this study was to examine two components of psychological well-being - life satisfaction and affective well-being - in community-dwelling elderly with (n = 321) and without chronic headache (n = 4955). Methods. - A checklist of chronic; medical conditions was used to determine whether respondents were suffering from headache, Cantril's ladder was employed to measure life satisfaction. The subscale, Mental Health, from the MOS SF-20 was used to assess affective well-being. Results. - Headache sufferers reported lower life satisfaction as well as lower affective well-being. However, the difference in life satisfaction between the two groups disappeared after controlling for comorbidity. The difference in affective well-being disappeared after controlling for neuroticism. Conclusions. - Lower life satisfaction in patients with chronic headache is caused by more comorbid diseases in the headache group, Lower affective well-being in headache sufferers is due to higher levels of neuroticism in the headache group.