Comparative Study of Prevalence of Migraine among Defence and Non- Defence Undergraduate Students in General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU), Sri Lanka

Abstract

Introduction: Epidemiological studies have revealed its high prevalence, high socio-economic and personal impacts of migraine; it was ranked as the third most prevalent disorder and the seventh-highest specific cause of disability, worldwide. A study conducted among US Army soldiers demonstrated high migraine prevalence. Since the epidemiology of migraine in military remains largely unexplored, this study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of migraine among defence and non-defence undergraduate students in KDU, Sri Lanka. Evaluating prevalence on gender factor, identifying the most common aggregative factors for migraine were specific objectives of the study. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among a randomly selected 88 defence and 88 non-defence undergraduates. Migraine diagnosis was based on the International Headache Society standardized questionnaire. The migraine prevalence was compared, main triggering factors were evaluated and a comparison of variables between the defence and non-defence undergraduates was performed using descriptive crosstab in SPSS 23. Results: Overall migraine prevalence was 25% while male students had a higher prevalence (54.5%) than females (45.5%). The subtypes of migraine, “without aura” and “aura” were identified in 23.9% and 5.7% students respectively. According to the data 93.2% students were suffering from some type of a headache except migraine and only 6.8% had no headache. Comparison on the prevalence of migraine had taken in 18.2% defence undergraduates and in 31.8% nondefence undergraduates. Identified most common triggering factors were irregular sleep (50%), stress (78.3%), hunger (45.5%) and heat (44.3%). Discussion: A study conducted among medical students in University of Kelaniya has generated a 7.5 % prevalence of migraine which is lower than this study and their main triggering factors were irregular sleep (89.2%) and exam stress (62.2%) which is correlated to this study. Conclusion: Overall migraine prevalence was 25% and it was significantly higher in non-defence students than defence students. Prevalence of migraine was higher among males than females. Stress, irregular sleep, hunger and heat and were the most ommon triggering factors.