Associations between lipid levels and migraine: Cross-sectional analysis in the Epidemiology of Vascular Ageing Study

Background: Migraine with aura has been associated with increased prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, including elevated levels of some vascular biomarkers. However, little research has been done on this association among the elderly. We examined the associations of lipid levels with headache and migraine in a cohort of elderly individuals. Methods: Cross-sectional study among 1155 participants enrolled in the Epidemiology of Vascular Ageing Study with available information on headache and blood biomarkers. We used multinomial logistic regression to evaluate the association between biomarker tertiles and headache categories. Results: 925 people had no severe headache, 64 people had non-migraine headache and 166 people had migraine, of whom 23 had aura. Compared with participants without headache, we observed strong associations between increasing tertiles of total cholesterol and migraine with aura. The odds ratio (95% confidence interval) was 4.67 (0.99-21.97) for the 2nd tertile and 5.97 (1.29-27.61) for the 3rd tertile. We also found strong associations between triglycerides and migraine with aura (odds ratio for 3rd tertile: 4.42 (1.32-14.77)). We did not see significant associations between increased biomarker levels and any other headache group. Conclusions: Elevated levels of total cholesterol and triglycerides are associated with migraine with aura but not other headache forms in the elderly.