title: A comparison between prospective Internet-based and paper diary recordings of headache among adolescents in the general population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this article was to develop and apply an Internet-based headache diary (i-diary) for adolescents and compare it with a paper-diary (p-diary) regarding adherence, user acceptability and recorded headache activity.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a cross-sectional school-based study, a representative sample of 488 adolescents aged 12-18 years were randomly allocated by cluster sampling to record for three weeks in i-diaries or p-diaries their headache intensity, disability, and use of acute medication.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A significantly (p = 0.008) higher proportion of adolescents in the i-diary group used the diary at least once during the 21-day period (86% vs 76% for the p-diary). However, the p-diary group completed a significantly (p < 0.001) higher number of diary days (20.8 vs 15.0 days for the i-diary). The response rate for the i-diary-group was largely evenly distributed over the study period; conversely, approximately two-thirds of the adolescents using the p-diary responded on all 21 days, whereas one-fourth did not respond at all. The two diary types were rated as equal in easiness to remember (p = 0.25), but the i-diaries were more bothersome to use (p = 0.029).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although p-diary users completed a higher proportion of diary days, i-diaries provided more reliable and credible estimates of headache parameters because of better real-time assessment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Department of Nursing, Institute of Post Graduate Education, South Trøndelag University College, Norway Anne-Berit.Krogh@ntnu.no.
authors.forename: Anne-Berit
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Krogh
authors.affiliation: Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare - Central Norway, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Larsson
authors.affiliation: Unit for Applied Clinical Research, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway.
authors.forename: Øyvind
authors.initials: Ø
authors.lastname: Salvesen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Norwegian Advisory Unit on Headaches, St. Olav's University Hospital, Norway.
authors.forename: Mattias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Linde
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011446:Prospective Studies
keywords: Electronic diary; Internet; adherence; adolescents; headache; paper diary