Impact of migraine on the employed labor force in Taiwan.
BACKGROUND
To estimate the economic impact of migraine on the employed labor force in Taiwan.


METHODS
The age- and sex-specific migraine prevalence rates, self-reported missed workdays due to migraine, and monthly income were obtained from 3,377 subjects of a community-based headache questionnaire survey in the greater Taipei area. The migraine-related loss was projected to the whole Taiwanese population based on statistics from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics of the Executive Yuan, Taiwan.


RESULTS
People suffering from migraines had a median of 2 missed workdays due to migraine in the year prior to the survey. It is estimated that there are about 1.7 million people who have migraines over the course of 1 year in Taiwan. Migraine resulted in 3.7 million estimated missed workdays and an estimated cost of NT$4.6 billion due to loss of workdays in 2005. Employed migrainous women aged 35-54 years accounted for 56% of the cost.


CONCLUSIONS
Migraine is related to high work absence rates and causes significant economic loss to the society in Taiwan.
Fuh
Jong-Ling
JL
The Neurological Institute, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, and National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. jlfuh@vghtpe.gov.tw
Wang
Shuu-Jiun
SJ
Lu
Shiang-Ru
SR
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004651:Employment / Q000191:economics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology