The association between abdominal obesity and characteristics of migraine attacks in Iranian adults

Abstract

Background:Migraine is a primary headache disorder that affects the neurovascular system. Recent studies have shown that migraine patients with general obesity have higher characteristics of migraine attacks compared with normal weight patients, but data on central obesity are scarce. This study was done to assess the relationship between central obesity and the characteristics of migraine attacks in migraine patients.Materials and Methods:This cross-sectional study was conducted on 129 migraine patients (28 men and 101 women), aged 15–67 years, in Isfahan, Iran. Anthropometric measurements such as waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), waist–hip ratio (WHR) and waist–height ratio (WHtR), as well as characteristics of migraine attacks such as severity, frequency, duration, and headache diary result (HDR) was determined for each participant. Linear regression was used to examine the association between anthropometric measurements and characteristics of migraine attacks. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.Results:WC, WHR, and WHtR were positively associated with the severity (P-value: WC: 0.002, WHR: 0.002, WHtR: 0.001) and frequency (P-value: WC: 0.006, WHR: 0.01, WHtR: 0.002) of migraine attacks. Moreover, we found a significant association between WC (P = 0.001), WHR (P = 0.004), and WHtR (P < 0.001) with HDR. No significant relationship was observed between central obesity indicators and duration of migraine attacks.Conclusions:Central obesity indicators were positively associated with the severity and frequency of migraine attacks as well as HDR, but not with duration of attacks. Based on our findings, it can be concluded that weight loss may decrease the characteristics of migraine attacks.

Metabolic Aspects of Migraine: Association With Obesity and Diabetes Mellitus

“…These results are in accordance with a cross-sectional study in female migraine patients by Togha et al, showing that overweight and obese migraine patients (with a BMI ≥25) experience a higher frequency, severity, duration, and disability of their headache attacks, compared to those with a BMI <25 ( 115 ). Almost similar results were found in earlier cross-sectional studies including Indian and Iranian populations ( 116 , 117 ). Indeed, the latter study reports a significant association between abdominal obesity and the severity, frequency, and headache diary results, except the duration of attacks, in both sexes (both after pooled and stratified analyses) ( 117 ).…”

Zinc supplementation affects favorably the frequency of migraine attacks: a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial

“…To measure headache severity, the visual analog scale (VAS) was used. Based on this scale, the severity of headache ranks between 1 and 10 [ 26 , 27 ]. The number of migraine attacks in a month was considered as the frequency of migraine attacks.…”

“…Attacks duration was considered as the number of hours in which a migraine attack lasts. To determine the mean duration of migraine attacks per day, named HDR, the following formula was used: migraine attacks frequency × attack duration [ 27 ].…”

Migraine is Strongly Associated with Central Obesity Than with General Obesity: A Case-Control Study

“…Characteristics of patients with migraine. a single category in a study by Lee Peterlin et al (42), all of these studies confirmed a strong positive association (43)(44)(45). Lee Peterlin et al (42), demonstrated a positive association between migraine prevalence with both general obesity and central obesity in men and women ≤55 years, however, in men >55 years there was no significant association between a migraine and general obesity or central obesity, while in women >55 years, migraine was not associated with general obesity but was inversely associated with central obesity.…”

“…Several studies have shown that WHtR is superior to other indices of central obesity (28,46,47), as it considers the stature of an individual. Although Omid Sadeghi (44) was the first to use WHtR as an indicator of central obesity, he did not use it to define central obesity. In our study, we defined central obesity as WHtR of ≥0.…”