Does migraine increase the risk of COVID-19 in women?

Older women with a history of migraine need not worry too much about developing COVID-19, with a recent study suggesting that no significant association exists between migraine history and an increased risk of having COVID-19.

In total, 4,759 women (28.9 percent) reported any history of migraine through the end of 2019. Moreover, 1,271 women had had COVID-19, including 394 among those with a history of migraine.

No evidence indicated a robust or even a moderate association between migraine history and the risk of having had COVID-19 (odds ratio, 1.08, 95 percent confidence interval, 0.95‒1.22). Results comparable to this finding were seen for the different subtype of migraine and for hospitalizations due to COVID-19.

This prospective cohort study included 16,492 women enrolled in the Women’s Health Study who completed a series of questionnaires in 2020 and 2021 concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.

History of migraine was defined as reporting a physician diagnosis of migraine on any of the annual questionnaires from enrolment into the study (1992‒1995) through the end of 2019. Individuals were considered to have had COVID-19 if they reported a positive test for SARS-CoV-2 or its antibodies, were diagnosed to have COVID-19 by a healthcare provider, or were hospitalized for COVID-19.

The authors used logistic regression with inverse probability weighting to adjust for differences in the prospect of being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and potential confounding.