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Epidemiology, work and economic impact of migraine in a large hospital cohort: time to raise awareness and promote sustainability

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Abstract

Background

Migraine is not routinely assessed at work, making impossible to realize its impact and the potential benefit of migraine-related health strategies. We aimed to assess epidemiology, work and economic impact of migraine in a workplace cohort of a tertiary hospital.

Methods

Cross-sectional analysis of a cohort of employees working in a Spanish tertiary hospital. Through a web questionnaire, we screened participants for migraine, collecting demographic data, work characteristics, work impairment due to headache (WPAI), treatments and healthcare resource utilization. We calculated direct and indirect costs for the hospital.

Results

Six hundred sixty-seven employees participated (8.8%). 71.2% (475/667) fulfilled criteria for migraine, being 76.8% (365/475) low-frequency episodic migraine (LFEM), 12.6% (60/475) high-frequency episodic migraine (HFEM) and 10.5% (50/475) chronic migraine (CM). Only 56.2% (267/475) were aware of suffering from migraine. Only 43.3% (26/60) of HFEM and 56.0% (28/50) of CM have been on preventive treatment in the last year. Migraine caused an overall economic loss for the hospital of 439,848.90 €/month, as a result of utilization of healthcare resources at the workplace (136,028.0 €/month) and indirect costs (absenteeism + presenteeism: 303,820.90 €/month). Specifically, only 110 participants (HFEM + CM) were responsible for half of indirect costs (165,017.2€/month).

Conclusions

Although healthcare professionals have greater knowledge on health issues, migraine is underdiagnosed and undertreated, leading to a significant economic loss for the hospital. These results urge companies to assess migraine and promote stronger and migraine-specific health strategies at the workplace as a way to improve their own economic sustainability and the burden of migraine in their workforce.

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All data are available and any anonymized data will be shared by request from any qualified investigator.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the implication and collaboration of Josep Prats Geli, from the Human Resources Department.

Funding

No funding was received for this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Headache and Neurological Pain Research Group, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute, Department of Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08035, Barcelona, Spain

    Edoardo Caronna, Victor José Gallardo, Alicia Alpuente, Marta Torres-Ferrus & Patricia Pozo-Rosich

  2. Headache Unit, Neurology Department, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Ps. Vall d’Hebron 119-129, 08035, Barcelona, Spain

    Edoardo Caronna, Alicia Alpuente, Marta Torres-Ferrus & Patricia Pozo-Rosich

Authors
  1. Edoardo Caronna
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  2. Victor José Gallardo
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  3. Alicia Alpuente
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  4. Marta Torres-Ferrus
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  5. Patricia Pozo-Rosich
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Contributions

PPR and EC made substantial contributions to conception and study design. EC worked for acquisition of data. VJG contributed to analysis and interpretation of data. EC and VJG wrote first draft. PPR, MTF and AA critically revised and finally approved the version to be published. All authors fully comply with and approve the version to be published.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patricia Pozo-Rosich.

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Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest in regard to this manuscript. Dr Caronna has received honoraria from Lundbeck, Novartis, Chiesi. Mr Gallardo reports no disclosures. Dr Alpuente has received honoraria from Allergan plc, Novartis, Chiesi. Dr Torres-Ferrus has received honoraria from Allergan plc, Novartis, Chiesi. Dr Pozo-Rosich has received honoraria as a consultant and speaker for: Allergan-AbbVie, Almirall, Biohaven, Chiesi, Eli Lilly, Medscape, Neurodiem, Novartis and Teva. Her research group has received research grants from Novartis; has received funding for clinical trials from Alder, Amgen, Electrocore, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Teva. She is a trustee member of the board of the International Headache Society and the Council of the European Headache Federation. She is in the editorial board of Revista de Neurologia. She is an editor for Cephalalgia, Headache, Neurologia, Frontiers of Neurology and and advisor for The Journal of Headache and Pain. She is a member of the Clinical Trials Guidelines Committee of the International Headache Society. She has edited the Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Headache of the Spanish Neurological Society. She is the founder of www.midolordecabeza.org. PP-R does not own stocks from any pharmaceutical company.

Ethics approval

The study was approved by the Vall d’Hebron Ethics Committee (PR(AG)646/2020).

Consent to participate

All patients gave an informed consent for the analysis of patients’ data which was collected according to Spanish regulation on clinical trials. All patients consented to publication of anonymous individual data.

Supplementary Information

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Caronna, E., Gallardo, V.J., Alpuente, A. et al. Epidemiology, work and economic impact of migraine in a large hospital cohort: time to raise awareness and promote sustainability. J Neurol 269, 1456–1462 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-021-10715-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-021-10715-2

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