Migraine Attacks and Relevant Trigger Factors in Undergraduate Nursing Students in Hong Kong: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Objective This study aimed to examine the prevalence and features of migraine and explore the possible migraine triggers in a sample of university nursing students in Hong Kong. Methods A cross-sectional study using self-administered questionnaires was conducted in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2016. The questionnaire included ID Migraine™ for migraine screening and items measuring the frequency, duration, severity, associated symptoms, and trigger factors of migraine. Years 2–5 undergraduate nursing students from the university completed the questionnaires. Binary logistic regression was conducted to examine the migraine-associated factors. Results A total of 702 nursing students, including 168 males and 534 females, were successfully screened. Their mean age was 20.8 ± 1.4 years. The overall prevalence of migraine reached 11.8%. Over half (67.5%) of the students with migraine experienced attacks at least once per month. Each attack had a median duration of 3 h (interquartile range: 1–4 h) and the mean pain intensity score of 6.4 ± 1.6. Students with a family history of migraine (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 1.89; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.10, 3.25; p < 0.05) and poor general health status (Adjusted OR: 3.41, 95% CI: 1.05, 11.09; p < 0.05) were more likely to suffer from migraine than those without. The three most common migraine triggers were the lack of sleep (94.0%), change in sleep schedule (83.1%), and noise (81.9%). Female students were more likely to experience fatigue-triggered migraine than male students (85.9% vs 63.2%, p < 0.05). Conclusion Migraine prevalence was relatively high among undergraduate nursing students in Hong Kong. Sleep problem was the most frequent trigger factor. The students’ awareness of migraine attacks should be increased, and migraine management must be improved by avoiding common trigger factors in this population.

Prevalence of Pain and Its Risk Factors Among ICU Personnel in Tertiary Hospital in China: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Reports indicate that the prevalence of lower back pain among ICU nurses worldwide over the last year ranged from 34.5% 22 to 100%, 21,23 with nursing positions in critical care units requiring considerably higher levels of physical exertion, such as long periods of standing for hours, heavy workloads, shift work, patients with complex health problems, and frequent emergency conditions and death; thus, the risk level of ICU nurses is much higher than that of nurses who work in other units. 8 Moreover, limited data are available on the pain levels experienced by ICU doctors and workers among ICU workers; these values are comparable to those found among the general East Asian population 10 and undergraduate nursing students in Hong Kong; 24 Thus, this issue warrants further attention. We found that bending or twisting of the neck was associated with pain and that the neck was the main body location where ICU doctors reported feeling pain.…”

Is there any importance of Migraine with Aura amongst medical students?

“…Xie et al recorded the duration of headache as the average number of hours for a typical headache attack and found that the average duration of a migraine attack was 3 (interquartile range: 1–4) hours. 3 In the study, the authors did not indicate how long headache lasted amongst the medical students (2022).…”

Prevalence and risk factors of migraine headache among university students: A cross-sectional study in Lebanon

“…These have allowed studies to achieve comparable statistics on the prevalence, incidence, and course of diseases. 8 Particularly, the introduction of "explicit diagnostic criteria for headache syndromes" in 1988 by the International Headache Society (IHS) was a cornerstone in migraine assessment. 8 Accordingly, the three-item Identification of Migraine (ID Migraine), a brief self-administered screening test, was developed and validated as a practical tool to diagnose possible migraine cases.…”

“…8 Particularly, the introduction of "explicit diagnostic criteria for headache syndromes" in 1988 by the International Headache Society (IHS) was a cornerstone in migraine assessment. 8 Accordingly, the three-item Identification of Migraine (ID Migraine), a brief self-administered screening test, was developed and validated as a practical tool to diagnose possible migraine cases. 9 Previous studies reported a higher prevalence of migraine among women 10 and adults between 20 and 65 years of age.…”