In a three-month study, researchers asked 122 regularly employed migraine sufferers to keep a diary of the number and effects of their headaches, including days absent from work as well as an estimate of their reduced effectiveness when they remained at work with headache (expressed as a percentage of their usual productivity). The percentages were then converted into "lost workday equivalents." Forty percent of the migraineurs accounted for all the lost work days due to migraine and about three quarters of the lost workday equivalents, leading the authors to recommend targeting the most severely affected.³

Number of workdays with headache

*Migrainous refers to headaches with some migraine features, but which
do not meet the full criteria for a diagnosis of migraine.

Workdays lost to migraine-related absence

Workdays lost to reduced job performance due to migraine

Adapted from Von Korff M, Stewart W, Simon D, Lipton R. Migraine and Reduced Work Performance: A Population-Based Diary Study. Neurology. 1998; 50:1741-1745.

Like similar studies on migraine, this study of 122 migraine sufferers who are gainfully employed found that far greater productivity losses came from reduced performance while on the job.³ On average, participants estimated that their job effectiveness fell 41 percent because of migraine headaches, 28 percent from migrainous headaches, and 24 percent from nonmigrainous headaches.³ Taken together, these amounted to the equivalent of three lost workday equivalents during the three-month period. The study also found that the most disabled 20 percent of sufferers accounted for 77 percent of the days absent, and the most disabled 40 percent experienced 75 percent of lost workday equivalents.³

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