Overweight Children Are Prone to Suffer from Headaches
Hershey, the director of the medical center’s Headache Center, and his research team studied 466 children between the ages of 3 and 18 years, all of whom were reported to suffer from headaches. Of the children, 91.1% of them were diagnosed with migraine headaches, while the remaining 8.9% presented with other types of headaches, like tension and cluster headaches. The medical records of these children were reviewed, interviews were conducted, and data was collected about the nature of the headaches, the severity, and amount of disability caused by the headaches. The researchers also collected information about the children themselves. Most notably, the children’s body mass index (BMI) was calculated and recorded. The BMI determines whether a person is overweight for their size, and by how much.
The findings of this study supported the claim presented by Hershey and his team at the 49th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Society that overweight children are more prone to suffer from headaches than their weight appropriate peers.
Not only are overweight children more likely to suffer from headaches, but the severities of the headaches they experience are also shown to be more significant. Furthermore, the headaches of overweight children are more likely to disrupt the children’s daily lives and routines. “Kids who are obese are more likely to have increased disability from their headache,” said Hershey, noting that children who were overweight were also more prone to miss school and other activities than their thinner peers.
The average incidence of headache frequency in the children enrolled in the study was eleven headaches per month. That number is far higher than the national average, a fact that is not surprising, however, given that study participants were enrolled from seven pediatric health center headache clinics, and therefore showing a predisposition to suffer from headaches. However, when given a “disability score” from their answers to questions about school absences and missed activities due to their headaches, the score for overweight children was averaged at 42, while the disability score for the children of healthy weight averaged at under 29. According to the researchers, disability scores of 30 to 50 are considered to be “moderate.”
Researchers do not believe, however, that it is the fact that the child is overweight that is causing them to be more prone to suffer from headaches. However, some connection between high body mass index and headache frequency and severity does seem to exist, according to the data presented by Hershey and his team. That correlation, he indicated, is still being investigated. “The question of whether the obesity directly leads to the headache is not solved,” Hershey said, adding that he suspects that many of the children who experience high incidence of headaches may be exercising less, which will also leave them more susceptible to becoming overweight.
More investigation is warranted to explain why overweight children are more prone to suffer from headaches than children of average weight. In the meantime, however, Hershey’s advice to parents of overweight children who suffer from headaches is to try to supplement their current medication regime with healthier behaviors, stressing attention to proper exercise, nutrition, and sleeping habits.
Source: WebMD
