Study illustrates substantial migraine burden worldwide

Key takeaways:

• Almost 15,000 Individuals in six nations responded to the CaMEO-1 survey.
• Migraine burden included quality of life issues such as mood and work-related productivity.

According to results of a six-nation global survey, individuals with migraine experienced a high level of symptom burden and severity, negatively affecting their quality of life including mood.

“Migraine affects over 1 billion people worldwide and is the leading cause of years lived with disability in people ages 15 to 49 years,” Zaza Katsarava, MD, PhD, MSc, head of the department of neurology at the Christian Hospital Unna in Germany, and colleagues wrote in Cephalalgia.

Few studies have evaluated global migraine disability with a similar methodology, so Katsarava and colleagues sought to increase the body of knowledge through analysis of a cross-sectional study evaluating the effects of migraine in six countries.

They distributed a web-based survey (CaMEO-1) in 2021 and 2022 throughout Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and United States, which prompted 14,492 respondents (mean age, 41.7 years; 71.2% female) dealing with migraine to answer symptom-related questions through metrics such as the Migraine Symptom Severity Score (MSSS, range: 0–21), Allodynia Symptom Checklist (ASC-12), Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4), Migraine-Specific Quality of Life questionnaire version 2.1 (MSQ v2.1) and Work Productivity and Activity Impairment (WPAI) questionnaire.

Results showed a high level of symptom burden and quality of life impact across several metrics, according to the researchers.

Among all respondents living with migraine, the mean standard deviation for MSSS was 15.4 ± 3.2, while MSQ v2.1 Role Function–Restrictive, Role Function–Preventive and Emotional Function domain scores were 60.7±22.9, 71.5±23 and 65.1±27.2, respectively.

Data additionally showed that 48.5% of respondents (7,026 of 14,492) reported allodynia with headache via the ASC-12, while mean ± SD percentages of respondents who missed work or worked while impaired with migraine reported by the WPAI were 6.8±18.1% and 41±30.1%, respectively.

The researchers further reported, beyond strictly headache-related data, that 35.5% (5146 of 14,492) of respondents experienced moderate to severe anxiety and/or depression.

“Further research is warranted to explore potential differences between countries in the prevalence of specific headache features, disability and quality of life,” Katsarava and colleagues wrote. “Additional work is needed to raise awareness of the burden and overall impact of migraine worldwide.”