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Published on: June 2, 2014
Prevalence of reported migraine headaches in Canadian adolescents
K E Gordon1, J M Dooley, E P Wood
1Division of Pediatric Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, Dalhousie University, and IWK Health Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Objective:
To examine self-reported prevalence data for migraine among adolescent Canadians and to explore how reported migraine treatment varies by age.
Methods:
We analyzed the microdata files of the Canadian National Population Health Survey (1996-1997). Respondents reported whether they had "migraine headaches diagnosed by a health professional". They also reported whether they received "any treatment or medication for migraine headaches", with treatments subdivided into drug, diet or "other".
Results:
99.9% of 173,216 eligible respondents reported whether they had migraine headaches. Migraine was reported by 2.4% of Canadian youth aged 12-14 years and by 5.0% of 15-19 year-olds compared to 7.2% of adults aged > or = 20 years of age (p< 0.0001, chi-square). Active treatment was used by 51.0% - higher by females (53.1%) than males (44.7%) (p<0.0001 chi-square). Treatment was used by 45.1% of 12-14 year-olds, by 45.7% of 15-19 year-olds and by 51.5% of those > or = 20 years (p=0.0027). The nature of the active treatment choice (drug, diet or other) did not significantly vary within the age groups studied.
Conclusions:
We present robust estimates of self-report diagnosed migraine prevalence, derived from a large nationally representative population survey. Estimates of the prevalence of active treatment for migraine provide insight into the burden of migraine within this population.
