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Migraines more common among children with allergic rhinitis

Children with allergic rhinitis demonstrated elevated risk for migraines, according to study results.

Migraine risk was highest within 1 year of allergic rhinitis diagnosis, results showed.

“Physicians should be more aware of migraine in children with allergic rhinitis who complain of headache,” I-Chung Wang, MD, of Children's Hospital at China Medical University Hospital in Taichung, Taiwan, and colleagues wrote.

Wang and colleagues evaluated 461,850 children diagnosed with allergic rhinitis between 2000 and 2007. The investigators compared that cohort with 460,718 children without allergic rhinitis.

The researchers measured the incidence of migraines in both groups.

Results revealed children with allergic rhinitis were more than three times as likely to experience migraines during the study period (HR = 3.2; 95% CI, 2.97-3.46) than children who did not have allergic rhinitis. Incidence rates were 11.4 per 10,000 person-years among those with allergic rhinitis vs. 3.49 per 10,000 person-years among those without it.

Among those with allergic rhinitis, boys and children aged younger than 6 years old were most likely to experience migraines. The HR for migraines for children with allergic rhinitis was 1.44 (95% CI, 1.31-1.58) among those with two or fewer annual medical visits related to allergic rhinitis, vs. 14.8 (95% CI, 13.6-16.2) among those with more than four allergic rhinitis-related medical visits per year (P < .0001).

The risk for migraine was highest 1 year after allergic rhinitis diagnosis (HR = 4.89; 95% CI, 3.98-6). Also, children with allergic rhinitis were more likely to have a migraine without aura than migraine with aura, Wang and colleagues found. – by Jeff Craven

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.