A new Welsh study, published Wednesday online in the journal Neurology, has found that a brain pressure disorder known as Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH) is on the rise, which corresponds to rising obesity rates.
The study also found certain factors may play a role in increasing the risk of IIH, such as women, low income, poor education, and poor housing.
IIH is characterized by increased pressure in the fluid surrounding the brain, mimicking the symptoms of a brain tumor, such as chronic headaches, vision problems, and in rare cases, vision loss. The condition is most often diagnosed in women of childbearing age. Doctors suggest losing weight or surgery in some cases.
Study author Dr. William Owen Pickrell of Swansea University in Wales, UK, said, “The considerable increase in idiopathic intracranial hypertension we found may be due to many factors but likely mostly due to rising obesity rates. 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.”
The researchers found a six-fold increase in the number of IIH cases between 2003 and 2017. In 2003, 12 out of 100,000 people were living with the disorder, compared to 76 people in 2017. At least 2 out of 100,000 people were diagnosed in 2013, compared to 8 in 2017.
The authors found that the increase in the incidence of IIH is associated with rising obesity rates in Wales, with nearly 30% of the population being obese in 2003, compared to 40% in 2017.
Dr. Pickrell said, “The worldwide prevalence of obesity nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016, so while our research looked specifically at people in Wales, our results may also have global relevance.”
The study also found that the disorder was more common in women than men.
Furthermore, the researchers found that the disease was common among people with low socioeconomic status.
“Of the five socioeconomic groups of our study participants, women in the lowest two groups made up more than half of the female participants in the study,” Dr. Pickrell explained. “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 this disorder.” However, there was one limitation of the study. The researchers identified the “socioeconomic status of participants by the regions in which they lived instead of obtaining individual socioeconomic information for each participant,” according to Science Daily.
