Overweight Children Are Prone to Suffer from Headaches

A new study conducted by a team of researchers from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, led by neurologist Andrew D. Hershey, MD, PhD, reported findings that overweight children are more prone to suffer from severe headaches than their thinner counterparts.

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.