Generalized headache among Chinese climacteric women: findings from a prospective cohort

Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to prospectively identify the prevalence of generalized headache and associated risk factors in Chinese midlife women.

Methods

We identified 411 qualified women from a Chinese urban community, contributing a total of 2544 surveys. The presence of generalized headache was measured. Climacteric symptoms and other risk factors were evaluated by generalized estimating equations.

Results

The prevalence of headache complaints is associated with menopausal stages. Perimenopausal women have relatively high prevalence of headache symptoms, especially stage +1a women (59.0%) compared to late postmenopausal women (37.8%), although menopause stages were not statistically significant in the multivariate analysis. Women who had headache at baseline and depression were much more likely to have headache during menopause. According to the univariate and multivariate analyses in women without headache at baseline, starting menopausal status, insomnia, sweats, and depression were independently associated with newly developed headache.

Conclusions

Symptoms of generalized headache were less prevalent in late postmenopausal women. Our findings highlight the association between headache and climacteric changes.

摘要

目的：本研究旨在前瞻性的确定中国女性中广泛性头痛的患病率和相关危险因素。

方法：我们从在2544份调查中, 从中国城市居住区筛选出了411名符合条件的女性。检测是否存在广泛性头痛。用广义估计方程对更年期症状和其他危险因素进行评估。

结果：头痛的患病率与绝经期相关。虽然在多因素分析中绝经阶段与头痛没有统计学意义, 但在+1a期的女性（59.0%）与绝经后期女性（37.8%）相比, 围绝经期女性的头痛的患病率相对较高。在基线时就有头痛和抑郁症状的女性在绝经期更可能出现头痛。根据单因素和多因素分析, 在基线时没有头痛的女性, 开始绝经状态后, 失眠、出汗和抑郁与新发的头痛独立相关。

结论：广泛性头痛症状在绝经晚期妇女中较少见。我们的研究结果强调了头痛和绝经变化之间的联系。

Keywords:

• Menopause transition
• postmenopause
• menopausal status
• headache
• prospective cohort study

Acknowledgements

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The sponsors played no role in study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or manuscript preparation.

Potential conflict of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest in the current investigation.

Data availability statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program [2018YFC1004801], [2018YFC1002105]; CAMS Initiative for Innovative Medicine [grant number: 2016-I2M-1-008]; National Natural Science Foundation of China Project [grant number: 81871141].