Acute Migraine Attack in Students while taking Online Classes during Pandemic

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the frequency of migraine in students taking online classes during Covid-19 pandemic. Study design and setting: Cross-sectional study design using a non-probability convenient sampling technique was conducted and carried out for a period of three months from August 2021 to November 2021 at Bolan Medical College. Total n=500 students of secondary, high school, and undergraduate students of different disciplines attending online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic were the target population. Methodology: The questionnaire comprised of four sections; students’ demography, mean duration of using digital devices before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and presenting to the hospital with complaints of headache/migraine. Students willing to participate were included while students that refused to participate were excluded. SPSS version 23.0 was used for data analysis. To determine the association between mean duration usage of digital devices, presenting with headache/migraine or the use of glasses in-between pre-COVID and COVID era, a one-sample t-test was applied keeping p-<0.05 statistically significant. Results: From 500 students, the mean age was 18 ± 3.2 years. There were n=274 (54.8%) males and n=226 (45.2%) females. The mean duration of using digital devices in the pre-COVID era were 1.8 ± 0.7 hours while in the COVID era were 3.6 ± 1.9 hours. A significant difference was observed in terms of mean duration of digital device usage, frequency of migraine and use of glasses in COVID-19 era when compared with pre-COVID era. Conclusion: Increase in use of digital devices during COVID-19 pandemic caused increased complains of headache/migraine among the students. Additionally majority of students reported decrease in visual acuity during the pandemic due to which they had to wear glasses.