Association Between Abdominal Obesity Indicators and Serum Levels of Homocysteine in Migraine Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: The current studies showed that obesity could lead to hyperhomocysteinemia as well as migraine. Objectives: Thus, this study aimed to assess the association between abdominal obesity and serum levels of homocysteine in migraine patients. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 120 migraine patients, aged 15-67 years, who were referred to Isfahan Korshid and Imam Mosua Sader clinics in 2013. Abdominal obesity indicators such as waist circumference (WC), hip circumstance (HC), waist-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-height ratio (WHtR) as well as fasting homocysteine concentration were measured for all patients. Data was analyzed by the SPSS 19 software using t-test, χ2 and regression. Results: In this study, 7.7% of men and 18.8% of women had hyperhomocysteinemia. Abdominal obesity was prevalent in 3.8% of men and 27.1% of women. In the entire population, homocysteine concentration was positively associated with WC (P ≤ 0.001), WHR (P ≤ 0.001) and WHtR (P ≤ 0.001), either in crude or adjusted models. In addition, such relationship was seen in women. Amongst men, a significant association was found between WC and homocysteine levels (P = 0.03), yet the association between WHR (P = 0.06), WHtR (P = 0.08) and homocysteine concentration was marginally significant. Conclusions: Waist circumference, WHR and WHtR were positively associated with homocysteine concentration in migraine patients. However, further studies particularly of prospective nature are required to confirm our findings.