Migraine and Gender: Women Are the Most Affected, but Spend Less on Treatment

TWO OUT OF THREE AFFECTED PEOPLE ARE WOMEN AND THE CONDITION IS MORE PUNISHING FOR THEIR SOCIAL LIVES THAN MEN'S. BUT BECAUSE OF THEIR LOWER INCOME THEY SPEND LESS ON DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT, ACCORDING TO A STUDY BY CERGAS BOCCONI

Italian women suffer from migraine more than men (four million women compared to two million men), lose more working days (16.8 per year compared to men’s 13.6) and days of social life (26.4 against 20) and are more subject to the phenomenon of presentism, i.e. days when they show up at work in distressed conditions (51.6 days against 35.6). However, due to a lower income than that of males, they spend less on diagnosis and treatment (1,132 euro per year compared to 1,824 euro per year) and report a lower loss of profitability.
 
This is the picture outlined by the GEMA (Gender&Migraine) study of the Centre for Research on Health and Social Care Management (CERGAS), unveiled today in Rome during a conference, which investigated the direct health and non-health costs and productivity losses associated with migraine through a direct multidimensional survey carried out on a sample of 607 adult patients with at least 4 days of migraine per month. The survey was carried out in June 2018.
 
«Women seem to be victims of the many fundamental roles they play in society. They suffer from migraine more than men, but they cannot afford the privilege of absenting themselves from work or setting aside traditional domestic tasks», explains Rosanna Tarricone, SDA Bocconi Associate Dean and Scientific Director of the project. «Moreover, having an income on average lower than that of men, women renounce to visits and tests, they don’t buy drugs not dispensed by the National Health System, don’t undergo non-medical treatments and don’t receive formal assistance.
 
Using the recorded data, CERGAS has estimated an annual cost per patient with migraine of € 4,352, of which:
- 1,100 (25%) for health services,
- 1,524 (36%) for productivity losses,
- 236 (5%) for formal assistance
- 1,492 (34%) for informal care.
 
The costs borne by patients for drugs or treatments not covered by the National Health Service have been quantified at € 464 per year.
 
«Starting from the evidence that emerged on the cost of the pathology and on the different impact that migraine produces on women», concludes Tarricone, «the study supports the development of health and social-health policies differentiated according to the gender, with the aim of bridging the existing gap in a logic of redistributive equity».

by Fabio Todesco