Prevalence and predictors of migraine among medical students in Karachi

Migraine is a chronic health issue having a global prevalence of more than one billion people. Migraine impairs daily activities of sufferers and hence the academic performance of medical students as well. This study aimed to investigate the migraine prevalence among a sample of university medical students and to examine the predictors, trigger factors and impact of migraine among these students.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in three months, among the medical students of Karachi, Pakistan. Responses were collected using a self-administered questionnaire employing convenience sampling technique. The frequency, duration of attacks, severity, trigger factors, predictors and impact were measured for migraine cases. Independent t-test and chi-square test were used as the primary statistical tests. IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics (version 24) was used for all the analyses.

The overall migraine prevalence among students was 52.3% with the majority of migraines occurring in females. Year of study, age of onset, frequency and pain intensity were significantly associated with migraine in (P<0.05) whereas age and gender were not (P>0.05). Stress (96.4%) and lack of sleep (92.8%) were the most frequent trigger factors of migraine while family history was the most common predictor (32.1%).

Almost half of the medical students suffered from migraine with the majority being females. Reducing stress and improving sleep quality might be helpful in decreasing the migraine attacks in this population.