Validation of a German Language Questionnaire for Screening for Migraine, Tension-Type Headache, and Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalgias

• Published in: Headache Vol. 47; no. 4; pp. 546 - 551
• Main Authors: Fritsche, Guenther, Hueppe, Michael, Kukava, M., Dzagnidze, A., Schuerks, Markus, Yoon, M.-S., Diener, Hans-Christoph, Katsarava, Zaza
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.04.2007; Blackwell
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Cardiovascular system; Confidence Intervals; Female; Germany; headache; Headache. Facial pains. Syncopes. Epilepsia. Intracranial hypertension. Brain oedema. Cerebral palsy; Humans; Language; Male; Mass Screening; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; migraine; Migraine Disorders - diagnosis; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Pain Measurement - methods; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Psychological Tests - statistics & numerical data; questionnaire; reliability; Reproducibility of Results; Surveys and Questionnaires; tension-type headache; Tension-Type Headache - diagnosis; Time Factors; Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalalgias - diagnosis; trigemino-autonomic cephalgias; validity; Vascular diseases and vascular malformations of the nervous system; Vasodilator agents. Cerebral vasodilators; Germany; Headache; Nervous system diseases; questionnaire; Migraine; Cardiovascular disease; Medical screening; tension-type headache; Cerebral disorder; Vascular disease; Tension headache; Pain; Language; Trigeminal nerve; trigemino-autonomic cephalgias; Central nervous system disease; validity; Neurological disorder; Reliability; Cerebrovascular disease
• ISSN: 0017-8748; 1526-4610
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1526-4610.2007.00758.x

Background.—To develop a German language questionnaire for screening for migraine, tension‐type headache, and trigeminal autonomic cephalgias. Objective.—Aim of the study was to develop a German language self‐administered headache questionnaire for screening for migraine (MIG), tension‐type headache (TTH), and trigeminal‐autonomic cephalgias (TAC). Methods.—Questionnaire‐based diagnoses were blindly compared with those of headache experts. Results.—Overall 278 headache patients (MIG = 97, TTH = 60, TAC = 98, MIG plus TTH = 23) as well as 42 patients with low back pain without headache and 47 healthy subjects were studied. The Cohen's kappa for 7 headache syndromes including all combination diagnoses was 0.64 (95% CI 0.58‐0.70). Sensitivity and specificity for migraine were 0.73 and 0.96, for TTH 0.85 and 0.98, for TAC 0.63 and 0.99, and for MIG plus TTH 0.62 and 0.97, respectively. Ignoring all combination diagnoses, the kappa‐coefficient for the monodiagnoses MIG, TTH, and TAC (193 out of 278 patients) was 0.93 (CI 0.83‐1.0). The retest‐reliability (4 weeks later) was 0.95. Conclusion.—We present the first questionnaire in German language including 3 most common primary headaches for use in epidemiological research.