The Effect of Migraine Headache on Educational Attainment

Despite the fact that migraine headache is common and debilitating, very little is known about its effect on educational attainment. Using data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we estimate the relationship between migraine headache and four outcomes: high school grade point average, years of schooling completed, high school graduation, and college attendance. Across a wide set of empirical strategies designed to control for the influence of unmeasured heterogeneity, our results provide consistent evidence that migraine headache negatively impacts human capital accumulation. The relationship between migraine headache and educational attainment is explained, in part, through its effect on excused school absences and the respondent’s self-reported ability to pay attention in class and complete homework