title: The association between abdominal obesity and characteristics of migraine attacks in Iranian adults.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Migraine is a primary headache disorder that affects the neurovascular system. Recent studies have shown that migraine patients with general obesity have higher characteristics of migraine attacks compared with normal weight patients, but data on central obesity are scarce. This study was done to assess the relationship between central obesity and the characteristics of migraine attacks in migraine patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted on 129 migraine patients (28 men and 101 women), aged 15-67 years, in Isfahan, Iran. Anthropometric measurements such as waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), waist-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-height ratio (WHtR), as well as characteristics of migraine attacks such as severity, frequency, duration, and headache diary result (HDR) was determined for each participant. Linear regression was used to examine the association between anthropometric measurements and characteristics of migraine attacks. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  WC, WHR, and WHtR were positively associated with the severity (P-value: WC: 0.002, WHR: 0.002, WHtR: 0.001) and frequency (P-value: WC: 0.006, WHR: 0.01, WHtR: 0.002) of migraine attacks. Moreover, we found a significant association between WC (P = 0.001), WHR (P = 0.004), and WHtR (P < 0.001) with HDR. No significant relationship was observed between central obesity indicators and duration of migraine attacks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Central obesity indicators were positively associated with the severity and frequency of migraine attacks as well as HDR, but not with duration of attacks. Based on our findings, it can be concluded that weight loss may decrease the characteristics of migraine attacks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Department of Community Nutrition, Food Security Research Center, School of Nutrition and Food Science, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Omid
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sadeghi
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Nutrition, Food Security Research Center, School of Nutrition and Food Science, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Gholamreza
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Askari
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Nutrition, Food Security Research Center, School of Nutrition and Food Science, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Maghsoudi
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Nutrition, Food Security Research Center, School of Nutrition and Food Science, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ghiasvand
authors.affiliation: Neurology Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Science, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Fariborz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Khorvash
keywords: Abdominal obesity; central obesity; duration; frequency; headache diary result; migraine; severity; waist circumference