| Previous research has not addressed the relationship between headaches and quality of life in undergraduate students, with the factors of acceptance, catastrophizing, and physical activity. It was hypothesized that the factors of catastrophizing, acceptance, and physical activity would moderate the relationship between chronic daily headaches and quality of life. It was further theorized that those participants with higher levels of acceptance, lower levels of catastrophizing, and higher levels of physical activity would have a higher quality of life. Participants were undergraduate students recruited from a private religious university to fill out a series of questionnaires that assess level of physical activity, quality of life, and the coping strategies of acceptance and catastrophizing. The results were inconclusive, did not support the hypotheses, and in fact contradicted existing research. A possible explanation for this phenomenon is that previous research utilized a clinical population whereas this study used a nonclinical population comprised of undergraduate students. However, an interesting finding from this research is that the undergraduate students reported having rates of chronic daily headache that are double that of the general population (6% versus 3%). |
