Migraine and neck circumference: Is there a link?

Migraine is characterized by headache and a wide variety of other symptoms. The aim of our study is to find if an association exists between migraine and neck circumference among males and females. After approval from institutional ethics committee, a case control study was conducted. Cases with confirmed diagnosis of migraine were taken from KMC Mangalore affiliated hospitals. Controls were taken from the general population residing in Mangalore. Data was collected from the consenting participants after taking detailed history and examination based on which targeted information was sought out in a systemic manner. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 11.5. No significant differences were observed for the neck circumference between cases and controls (t = 1.169; p = 0.245), weight of cases and controls (t = 1.206; p = 0.232) or for the BMI between cases and controls (t = 0.096; p = 0.924). Though neck circumference was significantly correlated with weight and BMI of the participants, no association could be established between neck circumference and migraine. Migraine is observed to be more prevalent among females than males in the study. It is more common in the productive age groups i.e. 20-50 years. The study concludes that neck circumference was not significantly associated with migraine contrary to the proposed hypothesis of such association.