| Backgrounds and Purpose: The Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) questionnaire ,developed by Stewart and Lipton et al. in 1999,is a simple and effective tool for evaluating migraine-related disability and reflecting the Severity degree of migraine. Shun-jiun Wang et al. translated the English version of MIDAS into Chinese ,and showed that the the MIDAS-Taiwan questionnaire had acceptable internal consistency (Cronbachα=0.79), test–retest reliability (r = 0.67) and criterion validity(r = 0.34 to 0.37). We used the MIDAS-Taiwan questionnaire to measure the disability of migraine and tension type headache in our headache clinic.Methods: A total of 120 migraine and 60 tension type headache (TTH) patients, visiting the headache clinic at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, were invited to participate in the study. Our control group consisted of 66 healthy adults. No statistically significant demographic differences were observed between the headache patients and the control group. The migraine and the tension type headache patients completed the general information questionnaire and the MIDAS-Taiwan when they visited our headache clinic.We compared the differences of MIDAS scores among the migraine group, the tension type headache group and the control. Then the migraineurs were divided into chronic migraine group and episodic migraine group, and we compared the headache-related disability between the two groups. At last, we compared the MIDAS scores in gender, occupations and different education level groups.Results: The mean MIDAS total score was 29.43 in 120 migraine patients, 5.38 in 60 tension type headache patients,and 2.30 in the 66 control(P<0.05). MIDAS grade IV was found in about 53.3% migraine patients, and 8% tension type headache patients. The average total MIDAS score was 74.29 in chronic migraine group versus 21.00 in episodic migraine group (P<0.001). The patients with chronic migraine were more likely to be in grade IV (84.0% versus 31.4%). When we compared the MIDAS scores in gender, occupations and different education level groups, we found no differences.Conclusion: Almost half of the migraine patients are classified as having severe disability (grade IV). Therefore, on average, migraine patients in this study had suffered from very severe disability in the past 3 months. There has been little study of characteristics of the disability in migraine sufferers in China,mainland.Our study showed that TTH patients do not have severe headache. This result was similar with Wang S-J's. The TTH patients'average pain intensity and total MIDAS score was lower than migraine's (P<0.05). So disability may be low when the pain intensity was low to moderate. For this reason, the MIDAS questionnaire may has some of the role of distinguishing migraine patients from patients with TTH.In our study, MIDAS score was not affected by the gender, occupation and educational background. |
