Apparatus for determining association variables

A computer-program product for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer-program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium and a computer-program mechanism embedded therein for determining one or more migraine variables associated with migraines, the computer-program mechanism including:

• instructions for determining a statistical relationship between one or more temporal onsets corresponding to one or more events and a pattern of occurrence of a compound variable,
• wherein the compound variable corresponds at least to a pattern of occurrence of a first variable and a pattern of occurrence of a second variable, and wherein the determining includes contributions from presence and absence information in the pattern of occurrence of the compound variable;
• and
• instructions for identifying the first variable and the second variable as migraine variables in accordance with the statistical relationship.

An apparatus for determining one or more migraine variables associated with migraines, comprising:

• at least one computational means;
• at least one storage means;
• and
• at least one program module mechanism, the program module mechanism stored in at least the storage means and configurable to be executed by at least the computational means, at least the program module mechanism including:
• instructions for determining a statistical relationship between one or more temporal onsets corresponding to one or more events and a pattern of occurrence of a compound variable,
• wherein the compound variable corresponds at least to a pattern of occurrence of a first variable and a pattern of occurrence of a second variable, and wherein the determining includes contributions from presence and absence information in the pattern of occurrence of the compound variable;
• and
• instructions for identifying the first variable and the second variable as the migraine variables in accordance with the statistical relationship.