SCREENING FOR MIGRAINE IN THE GENERAL-POPULATION - VALIDATION OF A SIMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE

We present validation of a simple questionnaire designed to screen the general population for migraine. It comprises four questions: (1) ''H ave you ever had migraine?'' (2) ''Have you ever had severe headache a ccompanied by nausea?'' (3) ''Have you ever had severe headache accomp anied by hypersensitivity to sound and light?'' (4) ''Have you ever ha d visual disturbances lasting 5-60 min followed by headache?'' A telep hone interview carried out by a physician was used as an index of vali dity. The study population was 5,360 twins from the population-based D anish Twin Registry. All twin pairs where at least one twin had answer ed ''yes'' to at least one of our questions were eligible for the tele phone interview (n=2,272 twins). The response rate to the questionnair e was 87%; the participation rate in the telephone interview was 90%. The questionnaire ascertained 85% of all migraineurs (sensitivity). A combination of two questions (questions 1 and 4) extracted 93% of the twins with migraine with aura and 74% of the twins with migraine witho ut aura, yet only 26% of the sample needed to be interviewed. We concl ude that in the Danish population two simple questions are sufficient to screen for migraine in selecting participants for a diagnostic clin ical interview. Our questionnaire clearly merits further study to docu ment its universal applicability.