Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Apr 21;22(1):29.
doi: 10.1186/s10194-021-01243-5.

Disability, quality of life, productivity impairment and employer costs of migraine in the workplace

Toshihiko Shimizu  1 , Fumihiko Sakai  2 , Hitoshi Miyake  3 , Tomofumi Sone  4 , Mitsuhiro Sato  5 , Satoshi Tanabe  6 , Yasuhiro Azuma  6 , David W Dodick  7
Affiliations

Disability, quality of life, productivity impairment and employer costs of migraine in the workplace

Toshihiko Shimizu et al. J Headache Pain. .

Abstract

Background: Migraine is the leading cause of days lost due to disability in the world among people less than 50 years of age. There is a paucity of evidence on the impact of migraine and other headache disorders and the cost and productivity losses in the workplace.

Methods: Employee population survey assessed prevalence, characteristics, and disability of headache disorders at a Japanese information technology company. This study was supported by the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region Office and International Headache Society.

Results: 2458 (1963men, 495 women) out of 2494 responded to the survey that utilized ICHD-3 beta criteria. Among these, 13% (205 male/123 female) had migraine (M), 53% (1093 male/207 female) had tension-type headache (TTH) and 4% (61 male/27 female) had migraine and TTH (M/TTH). The number of days when productivity at work was reduced by half or more because of headache was significantly higher in migraine compared to TTH. The norm-based scoring of SF-12v2 was significantly lower in M/TTH and M than TTH. The economic loss due to absenteeism for migraine was calculated to be $ 238.3US$/year/person for day-off and 90.2US$/year/person for half-day off using migraine disability assessment score (MIDAS). The economic loss due to presenteeism for migraine was calculated to be $ 375.4US$/year/person using MIDAS and 2217US$/year/person using work productivity and activity impairment questionnaire (WPAI). Furthermore, estimated cost of productivity loss associated with presenteeism using WPAI was calculated at 21.3 billion US$/year in Japan as a whole.

Conclusions: This study revealed a high prevalence and disease burden among employees with migraine that is associated with substantial losses in productivity and employer cost. These results support the development and implementation of workplace programs to improve migraine management in the workplace and reduce the burden and costs associated with lost workplace productivity.

Keywords: Absenteeism; Disability; Economic loss; Impact; Migraine; Presenteeism; Prevalence; Stigma; Work productivity; Workplace.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: FS reports consulting for Amgen, Eli Lilly and Otsuka. DWD reports the following conflicts within the past 12 months: Consulting: AEON, Amgen, Clexio, Cerecin, Allergan, Alder, Biohaven, Linpharma, Promius, Eli Lilly, eNeura, Novartis, Impel, Theranica, WL Gore, Nocira, XoC, Zosano, Upjohn (Division of Pfizer), Pieris, Revance, Equinox. Honoraria: CME Outfitters, Curry Rockefeller Group, DeepBench, Global Access Meetings, KLJ Associates, Majallin LLC, Medlogix Communications, Miller Medical Communications, Southern Headache Society (MAHEC), WebMD Health/Medscape, Wolters Kluwer, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press. Research Support: Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, Henry Jackson Foundation, Sperling Foundation, American Migraine Foundation, Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Stock Options/Shareholder/Patents/Board of Directors: Aural analytics (options), ExSano (options), Palion (options), Healint (Options), Theranica (Options), Second Opinion/Mobile Health (Options), Epien (Options/Board), Nocira (options), Ontologics (Options/Board), King-Devick Technologies (Options/Board), Precon Health (Options/Board). Patent 17189376.1–1466:vTitle: Botulinum Toxin Dosage Regimen for Chronic Migraine Prophylaxis. TS, TS, MS, ST, YA and HM declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Symptoms related to headache disorder on days when headaches are not experienced. M, migraine group; TTH, tension-type headache group; M/TTH, a group that satisfies the diagnostic criteria for migraine and tension-type headache; HA, a group that does not meet the diagnostic criteria for migraine or tension-type headache
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Consultation to the medical institutions. M, migraine group; TTH, tension-type headache group; M/TTH, a group that satisfies the diagnostic criteria for migraine and tension-type headache
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization. Headache disorders. 2016. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/headache-disorders. Accessed 1 Oct 2020
    1. GBD 2015 Neurological Disorders Collaborator Group Global, regional, and national burden of neurological disorders during 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. Lancet Neurol. 2017;16:877–897. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(17)30299-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. GBD 2015 DALYs and HALE Collaborators Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 315 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE), 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. Lancet. 2016;388:1603–1658. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31460-X. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. GBD 2016 Neurology Collaborators Global, regional, and national burden of neurological disorders, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet Neurol. 2019;18:459–480. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(18)30499-X. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sakai F. The global burden of headache Western Pacific region. In: Olesen J, Ramadan N, editors. Headache care, research and education worldwide. New York: Oxford University Press; 2010. pp. 35–40.