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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pain Res.
Sec. Headache
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpain.2025.1539344

An analysis of the burden of migraine and tension-type headache across the global, China, the United States ,India and Japan

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Department of Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
  • 2 Phase I Clinical Research Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China

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

    Background: Recurrent headaches in headache disorders adversely impact quality of life and job. Migraines and tension-type headache(TTH) are the most common primary headaches and a prominent cause of disability globally. However, few research compare headache illness burden in China, India, the United States(US), and Japan.Methods: Global and Chinese, the US, Indian, and Japanese migraine and TTH incidence, prevalence, and disability-adjusted life years were taken from the GBD database for 1990-2021. The data is studied utilizing decomposition analysis, health inequality research, joinpoint regression model, and Bayesian Average Annual Percentage Change(BAPC) model.The study found that migraine mostly affects women aged 15-49, while TTH are evenly distributed across gender and age. The worldwide average annual percentage change (AAPC) in disease-adjusted life years (DALYs) for migraine and TTH from 1990 to 2021 was 0.0357, a statistically significant trend (p<0.001), as determined using joinpoint analysis.China exhibited the quickest rise in migraine and TTH incidence and prevalence, as well as the age-standardized rate (ASR) of DALYs, of the four nations analyzed. The US had the highest value of these indicators. Forecasting models reveal that without policy action, migraine prevalence will grow but TTH prevalence would stay unchanged. Decomposition research showed that population expansion is the major cause of migraines and TTH, which will be slightly alleviated by population aging. Health disparities across economic growth areas lessened between 1990 and 2021, according to the report.Globally and in China, migraine and TTH incidence and burden have increased since 1990. Migraines are becoming more common in young and middle-aged women, so headache treatment professionals should invest more in patient education to raise awareness and improve self-management to reduce disease burden and medical costs.

    Keywords: Global burden of disease, Migraine, Tension-Type Headache, Prevalence, Incidence

    Received: 04 Dec 2024; Accepted: 15 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Zhang, Dong, Xu, Zhou and Fan. 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:
    Jiying Zhou, Department of Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
    Xiaoping Fan, Phase I Clinical Research Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.