Objectives: Migraine is a debilitating neurovascular disorder. The relation of diets and migraine is a controversial topic yet. This study assessed the association of dietary patterns of migrainous women with attack frequency. Methods: In this cross sectional study 285 volunteer migrainous women (25-55 years old) based on the third edition of International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-3) recruited from neurology clinics of Golestan Hospital in Ahwaz, Iran. For collecting the data, the patients were interviewed. Dietary patterns of participants were assessed using a validated semi quantitative food frequency questionnaire which included 168 food items. Extraction of dietary patterns was performed using factor analysis. The association between dietary patterns and migraine attack frequency was analyzed by ordinal regression. Results: Two major dietary patterns which were extracted include the "western" and the "healthy" patterns. After adjustment for confounders, subjects with high adherence to healthy pattern had lower attack frequency (OR: 1.09; 95% CI: [0.51-2.25]; P for trend = 0.04); whereas, subjects with high adherence to western pattern had more attack frequency (OR: 0.89; 95% CI: [0.42-1.88]; P for trend = 0.02) significantly. Conclusions: Based on the results, adherence to healthy dietary pattern in migrainous women may be effective in controlling migraine attacks.
Keywords: Attack frequency; Dietary pattern; Factor analysis; Migraine; Women.