Updates on the Association between Obesity and Migraine: Systematic Review of Observational Studies

There are conflicting results from several studies that assessed the risk of migraine headaches in obese people. This systematic review aimed to investigate the most recent research on the relationship between migraine and obesity as well as potential mechanisms. A search was performed in PubMed, Science Direct, SCOPUS, EBSCO, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library. The Rayyan QCRI was employed to screen the articles before a full-text assessment was implemented. A total of fifteen studies with 28128 patients were included in this review. All of the reviewed studies showed that obesity increased the frequency of migraine attacks, the sensitivity to pain, the severity of migraines, and the self-efficacy in headache management. According to two studies, individuals under the age of 50 are more likely to exhibit these certain clinical traits. Recent evidence confirms the association between obesity and more frequent and severe migraine attacks. Some studies also reported that this is more common among obese people aged 50 years and below.