Devising and validating a headache diary in a series of patients with chronic daily headache from Colombia.
OBJECTIVE
To devise and test the reliability and validity of a brief headache diary in a series of Colombian patients with chronic daily headache.


METHODS
The study was designed in five stages: selection of domains (group of patients and experts); initial devising of the items (writing group); identification of non-understandable items (n=20); assessment of internal consistency (n=100); assessment of validity and assessment of sensitivity to change during seven consecutive days (n=25, 175 observations).


RESULTS
Five domains were selected: headache presence, severity and length of pain, analgesics intake, and missing workdays. The headache diary is internally consistent (≈75% of rotated variance), correlates with the medical interview (Spearman's rho and Kendall's tau over 0.8 for each domain) and it has an adequate and stable sensitivity and specificity (82 to 96%).


CONCLUSIONS
This headache diary is a reliable and valid instrument and represents the most important features affecting Colombian patients with chronic daily headache.
Hospital Santa Clara E.S.E, Bogotá, Colombia. gftorresa@unal.edu.co
Gabriel F
GF
Torres
Martha I
MI
Otálvaro
Juan C
JC
Vargas
Yulexi
Y
Castellanos
Jeimy Xiomara
JX
García
Javier D
JD
Triana
Cesar A
CA
Forero
Carlos D
CD
Guevara
Rodrigo
R
Pardo
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003105:Colombia; D005260:Female; D020773:Headache Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records / Q000592:standards*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D018781:Tension-Type Headache / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
D000700:Analgesics