The Prevalence and Awareness of Migraine Among University Students in Harbin, China

Aims: To determine the prevalence and the awareness of migraine among university students in Harbin, China. Methods: A cross-sectional study of students was conducted in Harbin Medical University from April 1 to June 30, 2012. The Chinese version of the Identification of Migraine Screener (IDMigraine) was used as the screening tool, and the awareness of migraine was evaluated by a structured questionnaire. A subgroup of the students was randomly selected to fill out the questionnaire again to evaluate its testretest reliability. The internal consistency reliability and structured validity were tested using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and exploratory factor analyses. Results: Of the 5,129 registered students, 4,406 students (85.9%) signed a consent form and completed the questionnaire. Three hundred ninety-five students were screened positive for migraine, with a prevalence of 9.0%, and the migraine prevalence increased with age (z = -2.82, P .01). Gender (χ2 = 0.12, P = .73) and body mass index (χ2 = 0.51, P = .78) did not significantly influence migraine prevalence, and the prevalence showed no significant difference between medical and nonmedical students (χ2 = 2.10, P = .15). The awareness of fundamental details (definition, classification, symptoms), treatment, and trigger factors of migraine were 40.4%, 42.4%, and 68.6%, respectively. The test-retest reliability of these parts of the questionnaire was 0.61 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.48-0.75), 0.77 (95% CI: 0.66-0.88), and 0.80 (95% CI: 0.69-0.91), respectively. Three components accumulatively explained 52.1% of the total variance of the scale, and the rotated factor loadings (the correlation coefficient between the items and the common factor) in each part were all higher than 0.50 excluding item C11. Conclusion: The prevalence of migraine in university students was 9.0%, which is comparable to the prevalence found in Chinese adults from the general population in two previous studies. University students have limited awareness of migraine. Keywords: awareness, ID-Migraine, migraine, prevalence, university students