Inverse relationship between type 1 diabetes mellitus and migraine. Data from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Surveys 1995–1997 and 2006–2008
Aims The aim of this cross-sectional population-based study was to investigate the associations between migraine and type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods We used data from the second (1995–1997) and third survey (2006–2008) in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study. Analyses were made for the 26,121 participants (30–97 years of age, median 58.3 years) with known headache and DM status in both surveys, and for the 39,584 participants in the third survey (20–97 years, median 54.1 years). The diagnosis of migraine was given to those who fulfilled the questionnaire-based migraine diagnosis in the second and/or third survey. Associations were assessed using multiple logistic regression, estimating prevalence odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results In the multivariate analysis of the 26,121 participants in both surveys, adjusting for age, gender, years of education, and smoking, classical type 1 DM (n = 81) was associated with a lower prevalence of any headache (OR = 0.55, 95% CI 0.34–0.88),and migraine (OR = 0.47, 95% CI 0.26–0.96) compared to those without DM (n = 24,779). Correspondingly, the merged group of classical type 1 DM and latent autoimmune diabetes of adults (LADA) (n = 153) were less likely to have migraine (OR = 0.53, 95% CI 0.31–0.91). Similarly, an inverse relationship between type 1 DM and migraine was found in analyses of 39,584 participants in the third survey. No clear association was found between headache and type 2 DM. Conclusions In this cross-sectional population-based study of mainly middle-aged participants, type 1 DM was inversely associated with headache, in particular migraine.