The Prevalence of Migraine in Different Parts of Iran: Review of the Current Evidence

Migraine is a type of primary headache that affects 10% to 20% of people worldwide. Recent studies have reported different prevalences of migraine in Iran. Hence, this study aimed to review current evidences related to the prevalence of migraine in different parts of Iran. A literature search was done for related articles published between 1998 and 2014 on PubMed, Science Direct, Embase, Web of Science, Medline, Scopus for English language articles, and on Iran Medex, Magiran and SID (Scientific Information Database) for Persian (Farsi) language articles by the following keywords: “migraine”, “headache”, “prevalence” and “Iran”. In most evaluated studies, migraine had a higher prevalence in middle-age individuals and females. The prevalence of migraine in adults varies from 7.14% to 18.11%, and the maximum and minimum prevalence was reported from Tehran and Zahedan, respectively. In children and adolescences, the prevalence varies from 1.7% to 12.3%, and the lowest and highest prevalence were found in Shiraz and Yazd, respectively. Based on the current findings, the prevalence of migraine in evaluated studies was high. Therefore, it is recommended for public health authorities to detect the reasons for the high prevalence of this disease and set appropriate strategies to prevent this disorder