Headache-related stigma and quality of life in adults with frequent headaches/migraine and frequent medication use: a plain language summary

What is this summary about? This summary reports data collected from the Migraine Report Card study.The Harris Poll Migraine Report Card study was a survey for people living with migraine. This survey asked about their experiences with headaches/migraine and also explored the stigma related to headaches/migraine and the respondents’ overall quality of life. Stigma related to health can be measured using a questionnaire called the Stigma Scale for Chronic Illnesses (SSCI-8).It has 8 questions that measure a person’s experiences with stigma. Survey respondents had frequent headaches/migraine attacks and used acute headache/migraine medication to relieve head pain or other symptoms at the time of the survey or at some point in their life. This report shares responses from adults with frequent headaches/migraine and frequent medication use at the time of the survey or a few months before it was conducted. What were the results? 47% of respondents felt a significant amount of stigma related to headaches/migraine.The most common example of stigma that respondents always or often identified was feeling left out of things.Men with headaches/migraine felt high levels of stigma more often than women.Respondents aged 49 years or younger felt higher levels of stigma compared to respondents who were 50 years or older.Employed respondents felt higher levels of stigma compared to respondents who were not employed.Non-Hispanic Black respondents (this group will be called ‘Black’ respondents throughout this summary) were more likely than non-Hispanic White respondents (this group will be called ‘White’ respondents throughout this summary) to feel embarrassed by physical limitations, feel embarrassed by their illness, and feel people were unkind to them.Respondents were also asked individual questions about how headaches/migraine impacted their quality of life and 56% of them felt that headaches/migraine worsened their overall quality of life. What do the results of the survey mean? The survey findings suggest that headache/migraine-related stigma may be an unrecognized aspect of life experienced by many people with frequent headaches/migraine and frequent medication use. These findings should be considered by people with migraine, healthcare professionals caring for people with migraine, as well as educational institutions, employers, colleagues, families, and friends of people with headaches/migraine.