Migraine is a primary headache disorder marked by recurrent headaches that can be moderate to severe. Common symptoms of migraine include nausea, vomiting, headache and light sensitivity. The symptoms can be treated with antiemetic and abortive or preventive medications. Woldeamanuel YW et al. conducted a meta analysis and systematic review to reveal the increasing global prevalence of migraine at the community level.

In this systematic review, advanced search strategies were implemented using PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science for community-based and non-clinical studies by combining the terms "migraine", "community-based," and names of every country worldwide spanning all previous years from January 1, 1920 through August 31, 2015. The  PRISMA and MOOSE guidelines were considered to develop the methodology. To identify pooled migraine prevalence and examine cohort heterogeneity, a meta-analysis with subgroup analysis was achieved.

Overall, 302 community-based studies comprising 6,216,995 participants were included. The participants were of median age 35 years, and the male-to-female ratio was 0.91. The global prevalence of migraine was reported to be 11.6% (95% CI 10.7-12.6%; random effects) with 10.4% in Africa, 10.1% in Asia, 11.4% in Europe, 9.7% in North America, and 16.4% in Central and South America. Migraine was found to affect 13.8% females, 6.9% males, 11.2% urban residents, 8.4% rural residents, and 12.4% school/college students on arranging the pooled cohort . The outcomes manifested a pattern of rising global migraine prevalence.

It concludes that migraine affects almost 10% of population across the world indicating recent rise. The prevalence was reported to be higher among females, students, and urban residents.