Key clinical point: Patients with diabetes who were screened for diabetic retinopathy (DR) had a lower risk of having migraine; however, DR was not a protective marker of incident migraine.
Major finding: The prevalence of migraine was 17% lower in patients with vs without diabetes (odds ratio [OR] 0.83; 95% CI 0.81-0.85), with the risk being lower in patients with vs without DR (OR 0.69; 95% CI 0.65-0.72). The risk of developing migraine was significantly lower in patients with diabetes and DR level ranging between 1 and 4 compared with matched individuals without diabetes (hazard ratio [HR] 0.66; 95% CI 0.55-0.80), but the risk was independent of the presence of DR.
Study details: The data come from a cross-sectional study including patients with diabetes who attended DR screening (n = 205,970) and age- and sex-matched patients without diabetes (n = 1,003,170).
Disclosures: This study was funded by the The Velux Foundation, Denmark. The authors declared no competing interests.
Source: Vergmann AS et al. Investigation of the correlation between diabetic retinopathy and prevalent and incident migraine in a national cohort study. Sci Rep. 2022;12:12443 (Jul 20). Doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-16793-0