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Obesity in children with headaches: association with headache type, frequency, and disability

Sarit Ravid1, Eli Shahar, Aharon Schiff

  • 1Child Neurology Unit, Meyer Children's Hospital, Rambam Health Care Campus, Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. s_ravid@rambam.health.gov.il

Headache
|April 12, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Childhood obesity is linked to primary headaches, particularly migraines. Higher body mass index in children correlates with more frequent and disabling headaches, regardless of type.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Neurology
  • Public Health
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • The link between obesity and headaches is established in adults, but less understood in children.
  • Few studies explore obesity's relationship with specific primary headache types in pediatric populations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between childhood obesity and primary headache types.
  • To determine the relationship between obesity, headache frequency, and disability in children.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective analysis of 181 children presenting with primary headaches.
  • Collected data on demographics, headache characteristics, height, and weight.
  • Calculated body mass index (BMI) percentiles and compared headache features across weight categories.

Main Results:

  • Obesity prevalence was 39.8% in the study group.
  • Migraine diagnosis, unlike tension-type headache, was significantly associated with overweight status (OR=2.29).
  • Higher BMI percentile correlated with increased headache frequency and disability, irrespective of headache type.

Conclusions:

  • Childhood obesity is associated with primary headaches.
  • Obesity appears to be a risk factor for migraine in children.
  • Increased headache frequency and disability are linked to higher BMI in children, regardless of headache classification.
Abstract

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