The 1998/99 Statistics Canada National Population Health Survey reports that 7.9% of Canadians over age 12 have been diagnosed with migraine headaches. Females are more than 3 times as likely to experience them than males (11.7% compared with 3.8%); this gender difference persists across all age groups but is most pronounced among those aged 25–39. In this age group, 15.5% of women and 4% of men experience migraines.
People of both sexes who suffered from migraines were much more likely than those who did not to report that they also had other chronic conditions such as food and other allergies, asthma, arthritis or rheumatism, and hypertension. Migraineurs also use the health care system more, with 32.9% of them having had 7 or more consultations with a health care professional in the past year, compared with 15.6% of those without the disorder.
The incidence of migraine was almost 3 times higher among Canadians who reported experiencing a major depressive episode in the past year than among those who had not (20.4% vs. 7.3%).
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Shelley Martin
martis@cma.ca
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