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Fruit and vegetable consumption in relation to primary headaches: the MEPHASOUS study

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Abstract

Background

Fruit and vegetable consumption may beneficially affect the odds of primary headaches due to their antioxidant contents. However, no study has examined the association between fruit and vegetable consumption and primary headaches among university students.

Aim

To assess the relation between fruit and vegetable intakes and primary headaches among Iranian university students.

Methods

Overall, 83,214 university students with an age range of ≥ 18 years participated in the present study. Dietary intakes and also data on confounding variables were collected using validated questionnaires. Data on dietary intakes were collected using a validated dietary habits questionnaire. We used the International Classification of Headache Disorders-3 (ICHD-3) criteria to define primary headaches.

Results

Fruit consumption was negatively associated with primary headaches; such that after controlling for potential confounders, greater intake of fruits was associated with 30% lower odds of primary headaches (OR: 0.70, 95% CI 0.58–0.84). Such an inverse association was also found for vegetable consumption. In the fully adjusted model, students in the top category of vegetable consumption were 16% less likely to have primary headaches compared with those in the bottom category (OR: 0.84, 95% CI 0.74–0.95). Subgroup analysis revealed that fruit consumption was inversely associated with primary headaches in females, unlike males, and vegetable consumption was inversely associated with these headaches in males, as opposed to females. Moreover, fruit and vegetable consumption was related to lower odds of primary headaches in normal-weight students.

Conclusion

Fruit and vegetable intakes were associated with reduced odds of primary headaches.

Level of evidence

Level III, cross-sectional analytic studies.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the staffs, fieldworkers, and participants of the MEPHASOUS project that without whom this work would not have been possible. This study was supported by the Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

Funding

The study was financially supported by the Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran, in collaboration with the health organization of Ministry of Science and Technology (CHOMST), Tehran, Iran.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Student Health Services, Students’ Health and Consultation Center, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Masoume Mansouri

  2. Elderly Health Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran

    Farshad Sharifi

  3. Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Mehdi Varmaghani

  4. Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Research Institute for Health Development, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran

    Azad Shokri

  5. Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Iranshahr University of Medical Sciences, Iranshahr, Iran

    HosseinAli Rahdar

  6. Department of Health Sciences Education Development, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Abasali Keshtkar

  7. Students’ Scientific Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Omid Sadeghi

  8. Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box 14155-6117, Tehran, Iran

    Omid Sadeghi

Authors
  1. Masoume Mansouri
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  2. Farshad Sharifi
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  7. Omid Sadeghi
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Contributions

MM, FS, MV, and AK contributed to study conception, design, and data collection. OS contributed to statistical analysis. OS, HR and AS contributed to manuscript drafting. All authors acknowledge the full responsibility for the analyses and interpretation of the report. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Omid Sadeghi.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. All participants provided a signed written consent form. The ethics committee of the MST, Tehran, Iran, approved the whole project (code: 4/5/109779).

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Mansouri, M., Sharifi, F., Varmaghani, M. et al. Fruit and vegetable consumption in relation to primary headaches: the MEPHASOUS study. Eat Weight Disord 26, 1617–1626 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-020-00984-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-020-00984-7

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