Background Medication overuse headache (MOH) has high incidence and relapse rate, imposing a heavy social and economic burden. MOH is influenced by multiple factors and a large sample size study is needed to explore more risk factors.
Objective To further assess the risk factors for relapse in medication overuse headache patients in China.
Methods This retrospective cohort study included MOH patients in the First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital from September 2015 to January 2022 who were followed up for at least 1 year. The nonconditional Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the independent risk factors of relapse in MOH patients.
Results In total, 386 patients data were analyzed in this retrospective study, including 80 males and 306 females, of whom 101 (26.2%) cases had relapse. Patients in the relapse group had lower education level (P<0.001), higher BMI (P<0.001), longer duration couse of disease (P<0.001), higher frequency of headache onset (P=0.001), higher proportion of bilateral headache (P<0.001), longer duration of drug overuse (P=0.004), higher frequency of analgesic use (P<0.001), shorter duration of preventive medicine (P<0.001), higher percentage of anxiety (P=0.037) and sleep disorders (P=0.024) when compared to the patients without relapse. In Logistic regression analysis, educational level ≤9 years (OR=2.52, 95% CI: 1.24-5.16, P=0.011), duration of medication overuse (OR=1.09, 95% CI: 1.00-1.18, P=0.043) and duration of preventive therapy <12 months (OR=6.84, 95% CI: 3.82-12.22, P<0.001) were independently associated with MOH relapse.
Conclusion Lower education level, longer duration of medication overuse and shorted duration of preventive therapy may be independent risk factors for MOH relapse.
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