Healint announces a collaboration with University of Toronto, Canada, to study the role of pollution on Migraine

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Healint, the developer and owner of Migraine Buddy – the world's largest migraine tracking and research platform used by more than 3 million people and tens of thousands of migraine and pain clinics – and www.weather-migraine.com - The world first hyperlocal & AI based migraine weather-forecast website - is announcing a collaboration today with the University of Toronto. PhD student Andrea Portt works under the supervision of Dr Peter Smith, President of the Institute for Work & Health. Ms. Portt will be analyzing data obtained from Migraine Buddy, in conjunction with data obtained from Environment and Climate Change Canada, in order to analyze the impact on air pollution on migraine in Ontario. This research is funded by a grant from Dalla Lana School of Public Health's Data Science Interdisciplinary Research Cluster to cover the cost of administrative data access.

Healint's objective is to help research and promote a better understanding of migraine to improve disease management. In that frame, data and support provided by Healint is free of charge, the time allocated and resources provided by Healint are sponsored by the migraine-buddy users.

"This is another example of "Patient Driven Research", patients selected weather as a top research interest, shared some high-level anonymous data to support this research, this is extremely exciting!"  said François Cadiou, CEO and co-founder of Healint.

The objective of the study will be to determine the association between air pollution and risk of migraine attack onset using administrative and smartphone data. The researchers hope this will provide insights into the effect of the environment on this neurological disease. Given that exposure to air pollution is ubiquitous, an association of migraine with air pollution would have important worldwide implications for public health and environmental monitoring and intervention.

Air pollution causes oxidative stress. Neuronal membranes are vulnerable to this stress, which is thought to lead to neuroinflammation that could trigger migraine attacks. Identifying triggers is a coping strategy for people suffering from this disease. Establishing a pollution-migraine link could lead to health advice for those with migraines, such as avoiding exercising in high-traffic streets or avoiding areas with idling cars.

So far, studies examining the potential relationship between migraine and air pollution have produced inconsistent results, mostly due to the limited sample size or lack of availability of pollution data. This project allows for more granularity and a bigger sample size. Emergency department reports, data from patients using the Migraine Buddy app, and air pollution estimates in Ontario will be used in an integrated manner with a novel statistical technique.

In parallel to the analysis of retrospective data, a prospective study will be conducted to analyse the emergency department usage in Ontario by Migraine Buddy users. "This collaboration with Healint is a great opportunity for us to access data otherwise unavailable and address current gaps in the understanding of migraine triggers," said Ms. Portt.

About Healint

Healint Pte Ltd is a leading healthcare technology company transforming how patients manage chronic diseases related to the brain and the immune system. Healint puts healthcare in the hands of patients and empowers them to be active participants in the participation to clinical trials and real-world studies. The Migraine Buddy platform and its apps for tracking and weather sensitivity have over three million engaged users.

Find out more at [www.healint.com] & www.weather-migraine.com

Contact

 * Name: Bo Zhang 
 * Email: [email protected]
 * Contact number: +65 8657 9176 
 * Designation: VP, Business Solutions

SOURCE Healint Pte Ltd