Migraines affect children's school performance, a new study says.
Migraine is a headache disorder that is accompanied by headache, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. According to the American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention (AMPP) Study, one year prevalence of migraine among U.S. children aged between 12 and 19 years is 6.3 percent.
Marcelo E. Bigal and colleagues looked at 5,671 Brazilian children aged between five and 12 and found children with migraines less likely to excel in studies compared to children without the headache.
"Studies have looked at the burden of migraine for adolescents, but less work has been done to determine the effect of migraine on younger children," study author Bigal, a member of the American Academy of Neurology, said in a news release.
To reach the conclusion, researchers interviewed participant's teachers. Apart from that, researchers collected more information on the children's emotional, behavior and medical history through questionnaires provided to teachers and parents. They found children suffering from different types of migraines - chronic migraine (0.6 percent), episodic migraine (9 percent), and probable migraine (17.6 percent).
Factors like experiencing severe migraines for a long period, having a chronic migraine and children with behavioral problems were found more likely to have below average school performance. The researchers recommend parents to take their children's condition seriously and provide an early intervention.
"With approximately one-fourth of school-age children having headaches with migraine features, this is a serious problem, especially for those with frequent, severe attacks that do not subside quickly," Bigal said. "Parents and teachers need to take these headaches seriously and make sure children get appropriate medical attention and treatment."
The study has been published in Oct.30 print issue of American Academy of Neurology's medical journal, Neurology.
According to Migraine.com, migraine is common even among infants and boys are at a higher risk of developing the condition early (at seven years) compared to girls (10 years).
