According to a recent report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, more than 3 million Americans went to hospital emergency rooms seeking relief from headaches in 2008, and there were 81,000 hospitals stays for the condition. One-third of the emergency visits and two-thirds of the hospital stays were for migraines in particular.

 AHRQ also found that:

·         Women accounted for nearly three out of four emergency department visits and hospital admissions for headaches.  Migraines were about four times more common among women than men in both the emergency department and the hospital.

·         People from the lowest-income communities were 2.3 times more likely than those from the highest-income communities to go to the emergency room for headaches (1,300 versus 565 visits per 100,000 population, respectively).

·         Rural residents were 1.6 times more likely than their urban counterparts to make emergency department visits for headaches (1,425 versus 896 visits per 100,000 population).

·         People 18 to 44 years old were the most likely to make emergency department visits for headache (1,626 visits per 100,000 population). Those 18 and younger were the least likely (345 visits per 100,000 population).

These findings are based on data described in Headaches in US Hospitals and Emergency Departments, 2008. The report uses data from the 2008 Nationwide Inpatient Sample and the 2008 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample — databases of hospital inpatient stays and emergency departments visits in short-term, non-federal hospitals.