Objective: Demographics, health risks, pharmaceutical utilization, and other characteristics of adults with and without migraine who were employed by a school district in the southern United States were compared.
Methods: A total of 4528 employees completed a health risk appraisal. A diagnosis of migraine was reported by 11%. Employees with and without migraine were compared on several measures.
Results: Demographic and health risk differences were observed among the comparison groups. One-fifth of migraineurs had a prescription for an opioid, which was associated with very high average annual health care costs ($17,791) compared with migraineurs without opioid ($3907).
Conclusions: Migraine is common in the workforce. Employers may want to educate employees with migraine about evidence-based treatments. Benefit plan design should be consistent with current accepted treatment guidelines for opioid use.
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