The burden of headache in China: validation of diagnostic questionnaire for a population-based survey

Abstract

The objective of this study was to test the validity, in the Chinese population, of the Lifting The Burden diagnostic questionnaire for the purpose of a population-based survey of the burden of headache in China. From all regions of China, a population-based sample of 417 respondents had completed the structured questionnaire in a door-to-door survey conducted by neurologists from local hospitals calling unannounced. They were contacted for re-interview by telephone by headache specialists who were unaware of the questionnaire diagnoses. A screening question ascertained whether headache had occurred in the last year. If they had, the specialists applied their expertise and ICHD-II diagnostic criteria to make independent diagnoses which, as the gold standard, were later compared with the questionnaire diagnoses. There were 18 refusals; 399 interviews were conducted in 202 women and 197 men aged 18–65 years (mean age 44.4 ± 12.6 years). In comparison to the specialists’ diagnoses, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and Cohen’s kappa (95% CI) of the questionnaire for the diagnosis of migraine were 0.83, 0.99, 0.83, 0.99 and 0.82 (0.71–0.93), respectively; for the diagnosis of tension-type headache (TTH), they were 0.51, 0.99, 0.86, 0.92 and 0.59 (0.46–0.72), respectively. In conclusion, the questionnaire was accurate and reliable in diagnosing migraine (agreement level excellent), less so, but adequate, for TTH (sensitivity relatively low, false negative rate relatively high and agreement level fair to good). The non-specific features of TTH do not lend themselves well to diagnosis by questionnaire.

The prevalence of primary headache disorders in Ethiopia

“…This would have required at least one of the very few headache experts in the country to take time out from the health service in order to re-interview a subset of participants in the field; we could not justify this. The questionnaire already had a record of successful use in many countries and cultures [2, 17, 18, 30–35]. …”

The burden of headache disorders in Pakistan: methodology of a population-based nationwide study, and questionnaire validation

“…At the time of this survey, epidemiological data were lacking on headache in very large parts of the world, including China, India, most of Africa and all of the Eastern Mediterranean Region. The Global Campaign against Headache [3,4], conducted by the UK-registered non-governmental organization Lifting The Burden (LTB) in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO) [5], made its priority to fill these gaps [6-8]. An important consequence was that the Global Burden of Disease study 2010 (GBD2010) was much better informed, and able to include tension-type headache (TTH) as well as migraine.…”

“…Methodologically, the study built on a protocol developed for and experience gained in previous similar studies conducted at the instigation of LTB [6-8]. The adaptation of these methods for Pakistan and validation of the diagnostic questionnaire are described here.…”

Psychometric properties of the EUROHIS-QOL 8-item index (WHOQOL-8) in a Brazilian sample

“…6 Conceptually, each WHOQOL-Bref original domain (physical, psychological, social, and environmental) is represented by two items in the EUROHIS-QOL 8-item index. 7 A search of the MEDLINE (via PubMed) and PsycINFO databases using Eurohis and Whoqol 8 as key terms revealed several studies with different main objectives, such as evaluation of the psychometric properties of the EUROHIS-QOL 8-item in specific populations, [8][9][10][11] crosscultural assessments, [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] and multinational studies. [19][20][21][22][23][24] Only two studies were conducted in Brazil, where the EUROHIS-QOL 8-item has not yet been evaluated in local samples.…”