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The following is a summary of ”Sex-Specific Association of Cardiovascular Risk Factors With Migraine: The Population-Based Rotterdam Study,” published in the July 2024 issue of Neurology by Al-Hassany et al.

While migraine and heart problems are linked, the connection between migraine and specific heart risk factors (CVRFs) remains unclear, hindering targeted prevention strategies.

Researchers started a retrospective study hypothesizing a link between CVRFs and migraine prevalence, aiming to investigate sex-specific associations between these factors and lifetime migraine incidence.

They analyzed the Rotterdam Study, including middle-aged and elderly participants. Data on lifetime migraine prevalence and CVRFs such as smoking, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus were collected through interviews, physical exams, and blood tests. Quantitative data on CVRFs were also obtained, including smoking pack years, lipid levels, systolic and diastolic BP, BMI, and fasting glucose levels. Patients with migraine were matched by age to individuals without migraine, and conditional logistic regression analyses assessed the sex-specific associations between CVRFs and migraine.

The results showed 7,266 community-dwelling middle-aged and elderly (median age 66.6 [IQR 56.4–74.8] years, 57.5% female). Migraine lifetime prevalence was 14.9%. In females, lower migraine prevalence was associated with current smoking (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.58–0.90), increased pack-years (OR per SD 0.91, 95% CI 0.84–1.00), diabetes mellitus (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.56–0.98), and higher fasting glucose levels (OR per SD increase 0.90, 95% CI 0.82–0.98), while higher diastolic BP was linked to a higher migraine prevalence (OR per SD increase 1.16, 95% CI 1.04–1.29). No significant associations between CVRFs and migraine were found in males.

Investigators concluded that traditional CVRFs were unrelated or inversely related to migraine in middle-aged and elderly females but not in males, with increased diastolic BP being the sole exception, suggesting migraine might not be directly linked to the factors.

Source: neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000209700