Global, regional, and national burden of headache disorders, 1990-2021, with forecasts to 2050: A Global Burden of Disease study 2021.

GBD 2021 Headache Collaborators. Electronic address: yonkkang@gmail.com ., Wijeratne T., Oh J., Kim S., Yim Y., Kim MS., Shin JI., Oh Y-S., Jung R., Kim YS., Smith L., Aalruz H., Abd-Rabu R., Abdulah DM., Aboagye RG., Abolmaali M., Abtahi D., Abualhasan A., Adedoyin RA., Adnani QES., Afrashteh F., Aggarwal N., Ahmad D., Ahmadi A., Ahmadi NS., Ahmadzade AM., Ahmed SA., Al Awaidy S., Alabbad S., Alajlani MM., Al-Ajlouni Y., Ali MU., Ali SS., Ali W., Almazan JU., Alshahrani NZ., Altaf A., Al-Wardat M., Alzoubi KH., Amiri S., Amu H., Amusa GA., Anderson DB., Anwar S., Areda D., Asghari-Jafarabadi M., Ashina S., Ashraf J., Ashraf T., Azargoonjahromi A., Bahurupi Y., Baig AA., Bandyopadhyay S., Bardhan M., Barqawi HJ., Bashiri A., Bastan M-M., Bemanalizadeh M., Bensenor IM., Berhie AYY., Bhagavathula AS., Bhaskar S., Bhat V., Bhatti GK., Bhatti JS., Bilgin C., Biswas A., Bizzozero-Peroni B., Bustanji Y., Cámera LA., Caronna E., Carvalho AF., Chakraborty S., Ching PR., Christodoulou N., Chu D-T., Chu H., Cruz-Martins N., Dadras O., Dai X., D'Amico E., Darwish AH., Deekonda S., Devanbu VGC., Dharmaratne SD., Dima A., Dinkayehu TE., Do H., Doku PN., Doshi OP., E'mar AR., Eissazade N., Eltaha C., Fahim A., Fares J., Farjoud Kouhanjani M., Faro A., Fazeli P., Fereshtehnejad S-M., Ferrara P., Ferreira N., Fischer F., Fornari A., Gajdács M., Gebregergis MW., Ghadimi DJ., Ghaffari Jolfayi A., Gnedovskaya EV., Golechha M., Gomez Figueroa E., Hashempur MH., Hasnain MS., Hassan A., Hassan N., Hassan Zadeh Tabatabaei MS., Hegazy MI., Heidari G., Helfer B., Hossain MM., Househ M., Hu C., Iavicoli I., Ilesanmi OS., Ilic IM., Ilyas MF., Ilyasu S., Ismail NE., Jafari-Khounigh A., Jahrami H., Janodia MD., Jayasinghe RD., Jeswani BM., Jonas JB., Joseph N., Kalani R., Khan MAB., Khateri S., Khatib MN., Khayat Kashani HR., Khidri FF., Khormali M., Khosravi S., Kim YJ., Kompani F., Kostev K., Krishan K., Krishnan B., Defo BK., Kuddus M., Kulimbet M., Kumar R., Kumar V., Kytö V., Lasrado S., Lee SW., Lenzi J., Leonardi M., Lucchetti G., Lugo A., Makhdoom IF., Mallahzadeh A., Mansouri V., Marzo RR., Mathangasinghe Y., Mayeli M., Mehmood A., Meretoja A., Mestrovic T., Mettananda S., Minervini G., Mishra A., Mithra P., Mohamed Ahmed KAH., Mohammadzadeh I., Mohammed S., Monasta L., Morrison SD., Nabavi A., Natto ZS., Nauman J., Nieddu L., Nugen F., Olagunju AT., Oliveira AB., Oliveira WS., Omar HA., Omer GL., Otstavnov N., P A M., Panos LD., Parikh RR., Patil S., Patra A., Pedersini P., Pensato U., Peprah P., Peres MFP., Piradov MA., Pozo-Rosich P., Pradhan J., Prakash S., Prashant A., Puvvula J., Rafiei A., Raggi A., Rahmani AM., Ramadan MM., Rathish D., Rautalin I., Rawaf S., Rezaeian M., Rezazadeh Eidgahi D., Rhee TG., Roy P., Saad Eddin A., Sabet CJ., Saddik BA., Sadeghi E., Saeed U., Saheb Sharif-Askari F., Saheb Sharif-Askari N., Sahoo PM., Salimi S., Samy AM., Saulam J., Sawhney M., Senol YC., Senthilkumaran S., Sethi Y., Seyedmirzaei H., Shafie M., Shamsi A., Sharifan A., Shehata HS., Shenoy RR., Shokraneh F., Sidhu JK., Singh B., Singh H., Singh JA., Singh S., Skryabina AA., Sobia F., Srichawla BS., Suresh V., Swain CK., T Y SS., Tabaee Damavandi P., Tabche C., Tabish M., Tanwar M., Temsah M-H., Teramoto M., Tran NM., Tran TH., Tsatsakis A., Udoakang AJ., Usman JS., Uzunçıbuk H., Van den Eynde J., Vasankari TJ., Venketasubramanian N., Villafañe JH., Wang L., Wang X., Wang Y-P., Wiangkham T., Winkler AS., Wollie AM., Xiao Z., Yismaw YEE., Yousuf A., Zhao Z., Zielińska M., Chu MK., Song T-J., Yon DK., Feigin VL.

Headache disorders, especially migraines and tension-type headaches (TTHs), are major global public health concerns, as shown by the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021. We provide updated global estimates of prevalence and years lived with disability (YLDs) from 1990 to 2021 across 204 countries and territories and forecasts through 2050. In 2021, there are 2.0 billion people with TTH and 1.2 billion with migraine. Although TTH is more prevalent, migraine causes higher disability. While crude prevalence and YLDs increased, age-standardized rates remained stable and are projected to continue this trend due to population growth. There is a disproportionately higher burden in women aged 30-44 and countries with higher Socio-demographic Index and Healthcare Access and Quality Index. Despite this, migraines remain underrecognized in health policies and funding. This study emphasizes the urgent need to prioritize headache disorders in global health agendas.

DOI

10.1016/j.xcrm.2025.102348

Type

Journal article

Publication Date

2025-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

Volume

6

Keywords

Global Burden of Disease, disability-adjusted life years, headache disorders, migraine, tension-type headache, Humans, Global Burden of Disease, Female, Adult, Male, Headache Disorders, Middle Aged, Prevalence, Global Health, Migraine Disorders, Young Adult, Adolescent, Forecasting, Cost of Illness, Aged, Risk Factors

Permalink More information Close