Background: Migraine and severe headaches are extremely prevalent neurological disorders that plague humans and society. Prior research has revealed that DII may affect the occurrence of migraines, but there are too few relevant studies and more are required. This study aimed to determine the association between severe headache or migraine and the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), with particular attention to age and gender differences.
Methods: Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we performed a cross-sectional study. In addition, we investigated the association between DII and severe headache or migraine using weighted multivariate logistic regression models, and restricted cubic splines models were plotted to explore their linear correlation.
Results: There were a total of 13,439 people participating in the study, and of those, 2745 experienced a severe headache or migraine within the previous three months. The DII was linearly and positively correlated with severe headache or migraine (odds ratio [OR] = 1.05, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.01-1.08, p = 0.0051). Stratified analysis showed that this relationship persisted among women and those aged < 60 years, with ORs of 1.08 (95% CI = 1.04-1.13, p = 0.0004) and 1.05 (95% CI = 1.01-1.09, p = 0.0071), respectively.
Conclusions: We found that greater levels of DII were significantly related to an increased likelihood of migraine onset, especially among women and young and middle-aged populations. Further research is required to validate and expand upon our results.
Keywords: Association; Dietary Inflammatory Index; National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; age differences; headache; linear correlation; migraine; sex differences.