Association between migraine and exclusive breastfeeding: A cross-sectional study

Manav V Vyas; Nathan Lee; Christine Lay

doi:10.1111/head.14713

Association between migraine and exclusive breastfeeding: A cross-sectional study

Headache. 2024 Apr 21. doi: 10.1111/head.14713. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Manav V Vyas^{1

2

3

4}, Nathan Lee⁵, Christine Lay^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
² Division of Neurology, St. Michael's Hospital-Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
³ Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Centre for Headache, Women's College Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁵ St. Augustine Catholic High School, Markham, Ontario, Canada.

PMID: 38644657
DOI: 10.1111/head.14713

Abstract

Background: Medical conditions may preclude a mother from exclusively breastfeeding her infant; however, the association between migraine and the duration of exclusive breastfeeding is not well known.

Objective: To evaluate the association between migraine and the duration of exclusive breastfeeding in a representative sample of Canadian females.

Methods: We used the Canadian Community Health Survey, a cross-sectional survey, to identify females aged 20-49 years who delivered a baby in the previous 5 years. History of migraine was self-reported. Females reported if they breastfed their baby, and among those who did, they further reported the duration of exclusive breastfeeding. We evaluated the association between migraine and the rate of breastfeeding, and the duration of exclusive breastfeeding adjusting for selected covariates.

Results: We included 5282 females, of whom 862 (16.3%) had migraine. Compared to females without migraine, females with migraine were less likely to have high income (annual income >$80,000: 362 [42.0] vs. 2276 [51.6]), and more likely to have comorbid mood (176 [20.5] vs. 378 [8.6%]) and anxiety (196 [22.8%] vs. 406 [9.2%]) disorders. Migraine was not associated with breastfeeding (proportion of females who did not breastfeed, migraine vs. no migraine: 114/862 [13.2%] vs. 498/4420 [11.3%]; adjusted odds ratio 1.03; 0.74-1.27); however, females with migraine had lower odds (≥6 months of exclusive breastfeeding: 216/688 [31.4%] vs. 1325/3561 [37.2%]; adjusted odds ratio from ordinal shift analyses 0.84; 0.71-0.99) of longer duration of exclusive breastfeeding than females without migraine.

Conclusion: Females with migraine exclusively breastfeed their infants for a shorter duration compared to females without migraine, suggesting the need to better support this population through education on the safety and benefits of exclusive breastfeeding and better access to safe and effective treatment of migraine in lactating females.

Keywords: breastfeeding; duration; migraine; ordered logistic regression.