Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand is undertaking
an online survey of people with migraine in New Zealand, to
find out more about their experiences with health care,
medication use, stigma and the impact of migraine on their
lives.
An estimated 642,000 people have migraine in
Aotearoa New Zealand and it causes a similar level of
disability to major depressive disorder. Migraine attacks
that occur more frequently cause the highest amount of
disability, and can affect a person’s ability to remain in
employment as well as negatively impacting family and social
relationships.
Despite this, there are no statistics
from New Zealand on the prevalence of high frequency or
chronic migraine (headache for 15 or more days a month).
There are also no statistics on the proportion of people
with migraine who are on appropriate treatment. Research
from overseas suggests that the use of migraine-specific
treatment for acute attacks and medication to prevent
attacks is much less than expected, indicating a significant
unmet need for treatment.
“This survey is an
initiative to support and encourage more migraine research
in New Zealand, which is one of our key objectives,” says
Dr Fiona Imlach, co-founder of Migraine Foundation Aotearoa
New Zealand.
“We need this information to advocate
for better support and treatments for people with
migraine,” Fiona says.
“Without it, we can only
guess at how many people stand to benefit from new migraine
treatments in New Zealand that are not currently funded or
available. We can also only guess at the burden and cost of
migraine disease in New Zealand, how it impacts on
productivity, quality of life and whānau.”
The
Foundation is seeking participants who currently live in New
Zealand who have been diagnosed with migraine or have
symptoms that are consistent with migraine disease. These
include:
- pain on one side of the
head - pain that lasts 4 hours to 3 days if not
treated - throbbing or pulsing pain, usually moderate
to severe and often worse with routine activity such as
walking or climbing stairs - sensitivity to light,
sound and/or smell - nausea and
vomiting.
Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/XNSTFM5
More
information, the survey link and a QR code to take you
straight to the survey can be found at
migrainefoundation.org.nz. The survey is open for response
until mid
September.
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