Study Finds Increasing Incidence and Prevalence of Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension
Results of a study published in Neurology showed an increasing incidence and prevalence of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH). The increase correlates with rising obesity rates and also suggests socioeconomic status (SES) factors such as income, education, and housing may play a role in the condition.
For this retrospective case-matched study, researchers used a national healthcare database in Wales to analyze 35 million patient years of data over a 15-year period (2003-2017). Through the analysis, 1,765 people who had IIH during that time were identified, 85% of whom were women.
For each case of IIH, the body mass index (BMI) was compared to 3 people without IIH matched for gender, age, and socioeconomic status, using a national scoring system that considers factors such as income, employment, health, education, and access to services.
Over the 15 years evaluated, there was a sixfold increase in IIH prevalence, which correlated with rising rates of obesity rates in Wales, with 29% of the population being obese in 2003, and 40% being obese in 2017. The correlation of IIH with BMI was present in both men and women with IIH. Correlation with socioeconomic factors were found only for women with IIH, for whom lower SES increase the risk of IIH.
“The considerable increase in IIH we found may be due to many factors but likely mostly due to rising obesity rates,” said William Owen Pickrell, PhD, MCRP, Swansea University, Wales. “What is more surprising from our research is that women who experience poverty or other socioeconomic disadvantages may also have an increased risk independent of obesity. Of the 5 socioeconomic groups of our study participants, women in the lowest 2 groups made up more than half of the female participants in the study. More research is needed to determine which socioeconomic factors such as diet, pollution, smoking, or stress may play a role in increasing a woman’s risk of developing the disorder.”