Although studies have suggested environmental factors to be triggers of headache, the contribution of long-term air pollution exposure to recurrent headaches is poorly understood. Hence, we executed this nationwide cohort study to investigate associations between levels of ambient air pollutants and risks of recurrent headaches in children in Taiwan from 2000 to 2012. We used data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database and linked them to the Taiwan Air Quality Monitoring Database. Overall, 218,008 children aged < 18 were identified from 1 January 2000, and then followed until they were diagnosed by a physician for ≥3 times with recurrent headaches or until 31 December 2012. We categorized the annual average concentration of each air pollutant (fine particulate matter, total hydrocarbon, methane, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide) into quartiles (Q1-Q4). We measured the incidence rate, hazard ratios (HRs), and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals for recurrent headaches. stratified by the quartiles. A total of 28,037 children (12.9%) were identified with recurrent headaches. The incidence rate and adjusted HR for recurrent headaches increased with higher-level exposure of air pollutants, except sulfur dioxide. We herein demonstrate that long-term ambient air pollutant exposure might be a risk factor for childhood recurrent headaches.
Keywords: air pollution; headache; migraine.