CHESS Mapping Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Comparing health outcomes in people living with chronic headaches (Questionnaire Study)
IRAS ID
233448
Contact name
Martin Underwood
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Warwick
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Chronic headache is a major source of pain and disability worldwide. The focus of current research is on finding interventions that are clinically effective and cost-effective with potential to alleviate pain and disability, and improve the quality of life of sufferers. Conducting high quality research into what works best for a given health condition requires an understanding of the impact of alternative strategies on health and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) outcomes. Assessment of health outcomes in general and HRQoL in particular can however be challenging in patients living with frequent chronic headaches. Patients may only be affected on some days, when their health state may be classed as very poor – perhaps for a few hours only. Standard measures of HRQoL, such as the EuroQoL 5-Dimensional (EQ-5D) questionnaire that assesses health status on the day of completion, may therefore not provide adequate data in this context. More headache-specific measures may be preferable as they are likely to be responsive to headache symptoms and their impact on patients’ health and HRQoL. This study therefore aims to develop methods to predict the HRQoL of chronic headache patients based on responses to more responsive headache-specific questionnaires, such as the Headache Impact Test (HIT-6). Participants will be recruited from outpatient headache clinics and asked to complete a one-off questionnaire about their headache and its impact on their health and HRQoL. The data collected will be used to develop methods for converting responses from headache-specific measures, such as HIT, to generic HRQoL life measures, such as the EQ-5D. Generic HRQoL measures permit outcomes to be expressed in terms of quality-adjusted life years, which provide a common scale for comparing the effectiveness of interventions across different health conditions. The study will contribute to our understanding of outcomes measurement in this population and help inform to select measures for future headache studies.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/WM/0134
Date of REC Opinion
7 May 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion