Impact of Headache Frequency and Sleep during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Migraine Patients.

Ma, Mengmeng; Bao, Jiajia; Fang, Jinghuan; Li, Changling; Li, Yanbo; Ge, Wenjing; Zhang, Yang; Guo, Jian; He, Li

BACKGROUND Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread worldwide and poses greatly threat to global health. COVID-19 also has an unneglected effect on migraine patients. Migraine attack frequency as one of migraine characteristics, its impact during COVID-19 deserves further research. We aimed to evaluate whether migraine attack frequency during COVID-19 pandemic differed from pre-COVID-19, and explore their possible influencing factors during the pandemic. METHOD This prospective cohort study enrolled 187 migraine patients who came from the Department of Neurology of West China Hospital from October 2019 to December 2019. After inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 157 patients were included. We collected demographic data, clinical characteristics and epidemiological contact information and followed up on March 2020. Then Paired-Samples T test, logistic regression and interaction tests were used to analyze data. RESULT We found that value of migraine attack frequency was 2.47 ± 1.12 before and 3.54 ± 1.79 during COVID-19 (P<0.0001). Then we divided patients into two group based on the difference of migraine attack frequency between COVID-19 period and pre-COVID-19 and employed logistic regression analysis. In the logistic regression analysis, divorced status (OR=6.53, P=0.0453), good sleep pre-COVID-19 and poor sleep during COVID-19 (OR=3.11, P=0.0432) had independent effect on migraine attack frequency during COVID-19 pandemic. And we found no interaction in the poor sleep during COVID-19 between various subgroups. CONCLUSION Migraineurs may suffer from more frequent migraine attack during COVID-19 pandemic. Pay more attention to marital status and assessment of sleep status may contribute to adjusting suitable treatment strategies of migraine patients during pandemic.