Risk of vestibulocochlear disorders in patients with migraine or non-migraine headache

Abstract Background Headache, especially migraine, has been associated with various vestibular symptoms and several vestibular syndromes. In addition, cochlear disorders, such as tinnitus and hearing loss, have recently been reported to be more prevalent among migraine patients. However, whether headaches, including migraine or non-migraine headaches, are associated with vestibular and cochlear disorders remains unclear. Thus, the possible associations between headaches, including migraine and non-migraine headaches, and vestibulocochlear disorders were investigated in the present study. Methods Clinical data were analyzed from the Smart Clinical Data Warehouse of Hallym University Medical Center from 2011–2021. In patients with migraine and non-migraine headaches, data on Meniere`s disease (MD), benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), vestibular neuronitis (VN), and cochlear disorders such as sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and tinnitus, were collected and compared with clinical data from controls without headache who had health check-ups. In addition, the presence of comorbidities were defined according to the International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision codes in the database and analyzed. Results The study included 15,128 participants with migraines and 76,773 with non-migraine headaches. Controls were identified based on propensity score matching (PSM). After PSM, the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) in subjects with migraine versus controls were 2.597 for MD (95% CI, 2.047–3.295; p < 0.001), 2.045 for BPPV (95% CI, 1.816–2.302; p < 0.001), 2.976 for VN (95% CI, 2.636–3.360; p < 0.001), 1.739 for SNHL (95% CI, 1.404–2.156; p < 0.001), and 1.970 for tinnitus (95% CI, 1.658–2.341; p < 0.001). The adjusted ORs for MD (1.771; 95% CI, 1.560–2.011; p < 0.001)), BPPV (1.731; 95% CI, 1.637–1.831; p < 0.001), VN (2.048; 95% CI, 1.935–2.168; p < 0.001), SNHL (1.396; 95% CI, 1.273–1.531; p < 0.001), and tinnitus (1.693; 95% CI, 1.569–1.826; p < 0.001) in patients with non-migraine headache versus controls were also high after PSM. Conclusion The present study findings indicated that migraine and non-migraine headaches are associated with an increased risk of cochlear disorders, such as SNHL and tinnitus, in addition to vestibular disorders.