WASHINGTON, Jul 3, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Adolescents who suffer from
migraines are more likely to get lower grades and less likely to graduate from
high school, U.S. researchers said.
"Our results show that migraine sufferers have trouble attending school and have
trouble concentrating on the days they do make it to school," said Joseph Sabia,
a professor at Washington's American University whose work focuses on health and
economics.
Sabia and Daniel Rees, an economics professor at the University of Colorado,
Denver, analyzed data from 280 siblings interviewed for the National
Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
"By focusing on differences between siblings, we can rule out the possibility
that family-level factors such as socioeconomic status are driving the
relationship between migraine headache and academic performance," said Rees.
Adolescents who got migraines were associated with a 5 percent reduction in high
school grade point average, a 5 percent reduction in the likelihood of
graduating from high school, and a 15 percent reduction in the likelihood of
attending college, Sabia and Rees found.
URL: www.upi.com
Copyright 2009 by United Press International