Abstract

Objective: Obesity and underweight are known to be exacerbating factors for migraine in Western countries. In Asian countries including Korea, migraine prevalence and body mass index (BMI) are often lower than Western countries. To investigate the relationship of BMI to the prevalence, frequency, duration and severity of migraine in Korea.
Methods
We selected a stratified random population sample of Koreans over age 18 and evaluated them with a 12-item semi-structured interview designed to identify headache type using ICHD-2 criteria. The participants were divided into 4 categories based on the World Health Organization BMI categories for Asian populations: underweight (<18.5), normal weight (18.5-22.9), overweight (23.0-24.9) and obese (≥25.0).
Results
Of 1,507 participants, 71 were underweight (4.8%), 768 had a normal BMI (51.3%), 326 were overweight (21.8%) and 330 were obese (22.1%). Prevalence varied by headache type for migraine (6.0%) and PM (11.5%). Migraine, prevalence did not vary with BMI, but migraine attack frequency per month was higher both in the underweight (8.6±9.1) and the obese groups (7.3±11.2) in comparison with the normal weighted (2.5±2.7). Duration of headache attack and pain intensity (VAS score) were not significantly different between these groups.
Conclusions
In Koreans, obesity and underweight are associated with migraine attack frequency.