Tasneem Sandozi*, Hana Iqbal and Maryam Haitham Salman
Aim: To assess the prevalence of migraine in students at Dubai Medical College, UAE
Material and methods: A cross sectional questionnaire based study was undertaken for three months between December 2020 and February 2021, in Dubai Medical College for Girls, UAE.
Results: The students from the first to the final year of MBBS participated in the study. (n=147) 37% of the students from this sample size are giving a history of migraine. Family history of migraine is noted in 45% of students from this sub-group. The duration of migraine history is between 1-5 years in nearly 62% of them with duration of 1-5 hours and occurring at a frequency of one episode per week in the maximum number of students with a history of migraine. 58% of the students experienced an aura preceding the migraine attack, while 42% of the students had no preceding aura. Lack of sleep, examination and physical stress and psychological factors (anxiety, depression, anger) constituted the main triggering factors for the migraine attacks. Conversely, adequate sleep, rest, medication (analgesics) and coffee were the salient relieving factors. The students were suffering from mild to moderately severe migraine predominantly, while not many of them had severe migraine. Associated illness in the form of anxiety, allergic rhinitis and polycystic ovarian disease was noted in some of the students with migraine. Medical advice for the migraine was obtained by a very small number of the students.
Conclusion: Headache of migraine can have a detrimental effect on a student’s life both personally and professionally. Measures avoiding triggering factors, prophylactic drug treatment and launching of migraine awareness programs at high school levels would all be greatly beneficial in alleviating the student’s headache and halting its progress to a chronic illness; thereby influencing a student’s quality of life remarkably
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