Burden of disease and lifestyle habits in adolescents and young adults prone to frequent episodic migraine: A secondary comparative analysis.
Michaela V Bonfert, Nico Sollmann, Tabea Renner and 14 others
PMID 33955272WHAT IT FOUND
Young adults with frequent episodic migraine had more headache days, severe disability, regular analgesic use and less weekday sleep than adolescents; adolescents reported higher pain intensity.
Most lifestyle differences were not significant.
Key findings
01Young adults reported significantly higher headache frequency over the last 3 months than adolescents, while adolescents reported significantly higher pain intensity.
02Severe migraine-related disability was reported by 81% (n = 30) of young adults and 16% (n = 3) of adolescents; regular analgesic use was reported by 60% (n = 22) of young adults and 19% (n = 5) of adolescents.
03Young adults slept significantly fewer hours on weekdays than adolescents, while weekend sleep did not differ.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The analysis included only 27 adolescents and 37 young adults, so small numbers limit confidence. The groups came from different studies: adolescents were from a school survey, while young adults were recruited for an interventional rPMS trial, which may introduce selection bias. Participants were selected for frequent episodic migraine, with 15 to 44 headache days in the previous 3 months, so findings may not apply to less frequent attacks or chronic migraine. Both groups were highly academic and from the same region of Germany, so results may not generalize to other socioeconomic or educational settings. Migraine burden and habits were reported retrospectively by questionnaire. Adolescents and young adults were assessed for disability with different scales, PedMIDAS and MIDAS. The study did not collect data on headache evolution over time, family history of headache, sleep disorders, or electronic media use.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. Funding included a scholarship supporting MVB and the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that higher headache frequency and disability in young adults are caused by less weekday sleep, caffeine, alcohol or lower activity. The study is a small secondary comparison, most lifestyle differences were not significant, and it did not test whether changing habits improves migraine.