Headache Education for General Public by Leaflets Distribution During COVID-19 Vaccination and School-Based On-demand E-learning in Japanese One City -Itoigawa Geopark Headache Awareness Campaign-

Objective Headache is a common public health problem, but its burden could be avoided by raising headache awareness and the appropriate use of acute medication and prophylactic medication. Few reports on raising headache awareness in the general public have been reported, and there are no reports on headache awareness campaigns in Japan. We prospectively performed Itoigawa Headache Awareness Campaign from August 2021 to June 2022 and evaluated its effectiveness to the general public. Methods The main target group was the general public, especially those aged 15–64 y.o. We performed 2 projects; Project 1; Leaflet and paper-based headache awareness during COVID-19 vaccination, and Project 2; On-demand e-learning and online survey through schools. In these projects, we emphasize the 6 important topics for the general public, which were described in the Clinical Practice Guideline for Headache Disorders 2021. The awareness of the 6 topics among the 2 main projects’ cohorts before and after the campaign was evaluated. Results We obtained 4016 valid responses in project 1 and 2577 in project 2; thus, 32.23% of the working-age population of Itoigawa city experienced these projects. The ratios of individuals who know the 6 topics significantly increased after the 2 projects from 7–40% to 64–92% (p < 0.001, all). Conclusions We conducted this Itoigawa Headache Awareness Campaign through 2 main projects with improved ratios of individuals who know about the headache. The 2 methods of community-based awareness projects could raise headache awareness less costly and effectively.