Objective: To assess the association between obesity and primary headaches in children and adolescents.
Methods and procedures: In a prospective study, the short-questionnaire version based on existing International Headache Society diagnostic criteria was administered. Two hundred and seventy-three children and adolescents (61% females) aged 9-17 years were assessed. One hundred and sixteen (42.5%) subjects were of normal weight, 45 (16.5%) were at risk for overweight (BMI >85th and <95th percentile for age and gender) and 112 (41%) were overweight (BMI >/=95th percentile). The outcome measures were prevalence of headaches, type of headaches, association between headaches and elevated blood pressure in overweight subjects.
Results: Headache was reported in 39 (14.3%) subjects, with a similar rate in females (14.5%) and males (14%). Among 39 subjects with headaches, 20 (17.9%) were overweight, 7 (15.6%) were at risk for overweight and 12 (10.3%) were normal-weight children. Among females, 7.7% of normal-weight group suffered from headaches, compared with 14.8% of the at risk for overweight group and 20.3% of the overweight group (P for trend 0.04). Among males, the occurrence of headaches was similar in all three weight groups (P = 0.96). The occurrence of headaches increased from 10.6% among children aged 9-11 years to 21.8% in the 15-18 years age group (P < 0.05). In multivariate analysis, a significant independent risk for headaches was present in overweight females (odds ratio (OR) = 3.93, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.28-12.1) and in adolescents aged 15-18 years (OR = 2.62, 95% CI 1.07-6.45). Elevated blood pressure was not independently associated with headaches. Of the 15 children with migraine, 12 were either at risk for overweight or overweight.
Discussion: Overweight females had an almost fourfold excess risk of headaches when compared with normal-weight girls.