The association between obesity and migraine in a population of Iranian adults: a case-control study

To assess the association between obesity and risk of migraine with aura and features of migraine attacks among a population of Iranian adults.

In this case-control study, 102 confirmed cases of migraine with aura were matched based on age and gender with 102 healthy subjects. Data on demographic characteristics and anthropometric measurements were collected from all cases and controls by the same methods. Overweight and obesity were considered as body mass index ≥25-30 kg/m² and ≥ 30 kg/m², respectively. Features of migraine attacks including frequency, duration and headache daily result were determined for patients based on international headache society criteria.

Mean age of subjects was 34.5 ± 7.4 years and 77.9% of them were female. Compared with subjects with normal body mass index, those with obesity had greater odds for having migraine with aura (OR: 3.06, 95% CI: 1.11-8.43). Such finding was also seen even after adjusting for confounding variables; in a way that subjects with obesity were 2.92 times more likely for having migraine with aura compared with those with normal weight (OR: 2.92, 95% CI: 1.03-8.33). Among migraine with aura patients, we found that those with obesity had higher headache daily result compared with subjects with normal weight. However, obesity was not associated with frequency and duration of migraine attacks.

We found that obesity was positively associated with risk of migraine with aura. In addition, subjects with obesity had higher headache daily result compared with those with normal weight.