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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1510809
This article is part of the Research Topic Nutrition Counseling for Non-Communicable Disease Management View all articles

Investigating the relationship between diet quality, lifestyle and healthy eating index with severity and migraine attacks: A cross-sectional study

Provisionally accepted
Marziye Feyzpour Marziye Feyzpour 1Fatemeh Maleki Sedgi Fatemeh Maleki Sedgi 2Ghazal Baghdadi Ghazal Baghdadi 3Reza Mohammadifard Reza Mohammadifard 4Mehran Rahimlou Mehran Rahimlou 5*
  • 1 Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Tehran, Iran
  • 2 Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran
  • 3 Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Tehran, Iran
  • 4 University of Tehran, Tehran, Tehran, Iran
  • 5 Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjān, Iran

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Migraine is a disabling neurovascular disorder often associated with comorbidities such as mental health disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and metabolic syndromes. While certain dietary triggers have been identified, the impact of overall diet quality on migraine severity and frequency is not well understood. This study aimed to evaluate the association between diet quality, lifestyle factors, and the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) with migraine severity and frequency.A cross-sectional study was conducted on 280 patients aged 18-50 years newly diagnosed with migraines. Dietary intake was assessed using a 147-item Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), and diet quality was evaluated using the Lifelines Diet Score (LLDS) and HEI. Migraine-related disability and severity were assessed using the Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) questionnaire and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), respectively. Logistic regression models were applied to examine the association between diet quality and migraine outcomes.Results: Higher LLDS and HEI scores were significantly associated with reduced odds of migraine-related disability. Participants in the highest LLDS tertile had an odds ratio (OR) of 0.68 (95% CI: 0.42-0.96; p = 0.02) for migraine disability. Similarly, the highest HEI tertile was associated with an OR of 0.58 (95% CI: 0.41-0.88; p = 0.025). For pain intensity, the highest tertile of LLDS showed an OR of 0.55 (95% CI: 0.38-0.75; p = 0.026), while the HEI showed an OR of 0.62 (95% CI: 0.45-0.85; p = 0.03).Higher diet quality, as measured by LLDS and HEI scores, is inversely associated with migraine severity and frequency. These findings suggest that dietary improvements may be a viable strategy for managing migraine symptoms.

    Keywords: Migraine, diet quality, Healthy Eating Index, lifestyle factors, migraine severity

    Received: 13 Oct 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Feyzpour, Sedgi, Baghdadi, Mohammadifard and Rahimlou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mehran Rahimlou, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjān, Iran

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