High School Start Time and Teen Migraine Frequency

University of California San Francisco (UCSF)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Migraine

Treatments: Other: High School start time

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03766412

High School Start Time Study

Details and patient eligibility

About

Migraine is common in adolescents and can cause missed school and disability.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that high schools start no earlier than 8:30 AM in order to accommodate the physiologic needs of adolescents-whose brains naturally want to fall asleep later and wake up later and who still need to get at least 8 hours of sleep per night to function optimally-however, only about 18% of US high schools comply with this AAP recommendation. There is a relationship between adequate sleep and migraine. The investigators aim to determine whether high school students with migraine who attend high schools that comply with this AAP recommendation have lower migraine frequency than those that do not.

If so, it would argue for advocating for changes in high school policy to optimize health of adolescents with migraine.

Full description

Study design: This is an observational study of high-school students in the U.S. who have migraine and who attend a standard high school (i.e. are not home schooled or online schooled). They will complete a one-time online survey answering questions about their headaches and their schedule--particularly schedule aspects related to school and sleep.

Enrollment: 256 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria:

1. Live in the U.S.
2. In 9th-12th grade
3. Attends a high school that is outside of the home (i.e. not home-schooled or online schooled)
4. High school has a consistent start time all 5 days of the week
5. Has migraine by International Classification of Headache Disorders criteria
6. Can read and write in English

Exclusion criteria: NA

Trial design

256 participants in 2 patient groups

School start time 8:30 AM or later

Description:

These are high schoolers with migraine who attend a school that begins at 8:30 AM or later (i.e. follows AAP recommendation re: high school start time).

Treatment:

Other: High School start time

School start time earlier than 8:30

Description:

These are high schoolers with migraine who attend a school that begins earlier than 8:30 AM (i.e. does not follow AAP recommendation re: high school start time).

Treatment:

Other: High School start time