Obesity linked to migraine frequency in children

MedWire News: Obesity is associated with an increased frequency of migraine headaches in children, but is not associated with the severity of such headaches, researchers have found.

“An increasing number of reports suggest that obesity is a risk factor for migraine progression and headache frequency in adults,” explain Dr Sibel Tulgar Kinik, from Baskent University in Ankara, Turkey, and team.

“However, little is known about the influence of weight status on the number of headache attacks and severity of migraine in children.”

The researchers therefore studied 124 children (77 girls) aged between 4 and 17 years who suffered from migraine headaches.

Each child’s body mass index relative to their age was calculated and compared with their headache features, such as number and duration of attacks, pain severity and associated symptoms.

Overall, 22 (17.7%) of the children were obese, 20 (16%) were overweight and the remainder were of normal weight.

Analysis revealed no significant differences among the groups regarding pain severity and duration of migraine headaches. There were also no significant differences among the groups regarding migraine-associated symptoms, such as aura, aversion to light and sound, nausea and vomiting.

However, obese children suffered more frequent migraines than the overweight and normal-weight children, at an average of 5.3 compared with 4.4 and 3.8 attacks per month, respectively. Furthermore, increasing weight was associated with a corresponding increase in migraine frequency.

Dr Kinik and team conclude in the journal Cephalalgia: “Obese patients had more frequent migraine attacks than did non-obese patients. Our results underscore the importance of obesity prevention and treatment during childhood.”