Indirect costs of migraine in a managed care population

Migraine is a highly prevalent condition that commonly affects individuals during their most productive years. The aggregate cost of providing healthc are for persons with migraine is substantial, but the economic consequences of lost and reduced productivity among this population are greater. This p aper presents estimates of the annual indirect costs associated with migrai ne in a managed-care population. Our estimates include workplace and domest ic productivity losses for persons employed outside the home as well as tho se persons engaged exclusively in domestic production or who are unable to work. We find that migraine is associated with annual indirect costs for me n and women, respectively, of $4,548 and $4,897 in 1990 dollars, and that i ndirect costs increase with headache severity. Further research should cont inue to emphasize headache's effect on domestic production in order to avoi d bias in measuring the economic effect of headache on women.