The Reliability and Validity of the MIDAS ( Migraine Disability Assessment ) Questionnaire for Korean Migraine Sufferers

Lee, Hye Seung; Chung, Chin Sang; Song, Hee Jung; Park, Hye Sun

Abstract

BACKGROUND: No quantitative tool has been available to assess the migraine-associated disability in Korean patients. The Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) questionnaire is a simple new instrument for such a purpose. The present study was performed to test the reliability and validity of the MIDAS in Korean migraine patients.
METHODS
Using the MIDAS and MSQoL (Migraine specific quality of life) questionnaires, quality of life was assessed in 159 migraine sufferers enrolled at the Migraine Clinic of Samsung Medical Center through direct interviews. The MIDAS evaluates quality of life during the previous 3 months and is composed of 3 domains: 1) activity: (1)school or paid work, (2)household work, (3)family, social or leisure activities; 2) duration of headache, and 3) pain intensity (average pain score from 0 to 10). The MIDAS scores were compared with MSQoL that is composed of 25 questions across 3 domains: 1) role-function preventive, 2) role-function restrictive, and 3) emotional function.
RESULTS
The MIDAS exhibited good internal consistency and reliability with Cronbach anjs alpha of 0.75. The Pearson correlation coefficient R for the individual items ranged from 0.67 to 0.98. The degree of disability (i.e., sum of the MIDAS scores) was high (20.3) and the pain intensity was also high (7.6 +/-2.39). The negative correlations between the MIDAS scores and the 3 domains of MSQoL were observed at (p<0.01). The pain intensity of MIDAS had negative correlations with the three domains of the MSQoL (p<0.01). However, the duration of headache had a poor relationship with the degree of disability.
CONCLUSIONS
The MIDAS is a reliable and valuable migraine-specific quantitative tool to assess the degree of disability from migraine attacks. However, the domain specifying ausguration of headache seems to be excluded from the MIDAS.