Assessment of the Disability of Primary and Secondary Headaches and Assessment of the Responsiveness of the Brazilian version of the HIT-6TM and HDI-Brazil

• Grant number: 21/10405-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: April 01, 2022
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Débora Bevilaqua Grossi
• Grantee: Juliana Pradela
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto (FMRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/00357-8 - The clinical presentation of migraine according to stratification based on the presence of neck pain during cervical spine palpation: a cross-sectional study, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Headaches are a prevalent neurological condition and one of the most frequent symptoms in clinical practice can also be highly disabling, being considered the second cause of most years lived with disability in the world, affecting in a negative way quality of life and the socioeconomic, social, family, and physical aspects of the individuals who have it. Thus, understanding and identifying disability as a clinical outcome is important for patients with headache as it helps in proposing better strategies for non-pharmacological treatments. For assessing the disability of all types of headache, the Headache Impact Test questionnaires (HIT-6TM) and the Headache Disability Inventory (HDI-Brazil) are widely used and considered questionnaires with relevant questions and address the disability construct in a comprehensive way. The Brazilian version of these questionnaires are considered valid and reliable, but so far their responsiveness has not been tested, and this measurement property is able to correlate changes in the questionnaire scores of the pre- and post-treatment (internal responsiveness) and to verify the correlation between the change in the scores of the questionnaires with other variables of interest (external responsiveness), helping the health professional in clinical decision-making. In addition, studies that assess the disability using HIT-6TM and HDI-Brazil questionnaires to evaluate all types of headache, prevalent or not, are still lacking. Therefore, two studies will be carried out. The aim of study 1 is to assess the disability of primary and secondary headaches, prevalent or not, assessed with the HIT-6TM and HDI-Brazil questionnaires and the aim of study 2 is to assess the responsiveness of the HIT- 6TM and HDI-Brasil pre and post treatment and correlate the disability questionnaires with the self-report of improvement or worsening given by the Global Change Assessment Scale (GCAS) and the change in the frequency of crises, by the pain diary. The results of this study may provide robust data on the disability of primary and secondary headaches in the Brazilian population through questionnaires that have their most relevant measurement properties tested, with the clinician and the researcher being able to trust the data obtained by them.