[Disability and quality of life in patients with migraine: determining factors]

The purpose of this paper is to describe the behaviour of disability and quality of life (QOL) in patients suffering from migraine and to identify the factors associated with these variables.

A non experimental study based on observation was conducted with 116 patients diagnosed as having migraine, who were consecutively admitted to the Casualty department at the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery. The chief variables used in the study were disability, QOL and the overall evaluation of their state of health. The remaining variables employed included demographic variables (age, sex, skin colour) and clinical variables involved in the bouts of migraine (with or without aura, pain location, type of pain, length of the bouts, presence of associated symptoms, presence of precipitating factors and their number, intensity of the bouts and the number of days with headache). The Migraine Disability Assessment questionnaire (MIDAS) was used to evaluate disability, while QOL was measured with the Headache Needs Assessment survey (HANA).

The mean total score on the MIDAS was 40.8, and 58.6% of the patients were in grade IV disability. The mean number of days with headache over a three month period was 32.25 and the mean headache intensity was 8.50. The mean score on the HANA was 76.37. The factors associated with disability were the number of days with headache and comorbidity with high blood pressure, whereas their QOL was linked to the number of days with headache, the intensity of the pain and to the female sex.