Development and validation of a telephone classification interview for common chronic headache disorders
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: For a trial of supportive self-management for people with chronic headache we needed to develop and validate a telephone classification interview that can be used by a non-headache specialist to classify common chronic headache types in primary care. We aimed to specifically: exclude secondary headaches other than medication overuse, exclude primary headache disorders other than migraine and tension type headache (TTH), distinguish between chronic migraine and chronic TTH, and identify medication overuse headache. METHODS: We held a headache classification consensus conference to draw on evidence and expertise to inform the content of a logic model underpinning the classification interview. Nurses trained to use the logic model did telephone classification interviews with participants recruited from primary care. Doctors specialising in headache did a second validation interview. RESULTS: Twenty-six delegates attended the headache classification conference including headache specialist doctors, nurses and lay representatives (with chronic headache). We trained six nurses to do the classification interviews and completed 107 paired interviews, median days between interviews was 32 days (interquartile range 21-48 days). We measured level of agreement between the nurse and doctor interviews using proportion of concordance, simple kappa and prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK). Proportion of concordance of agreement between nurse and doctor interviews was 0.76, simple kappa coefficient κ 0.31 (95% CI, 0.09 to 0.52), and PABAK 0.51 (95% CI, 0.35 to 0.68), a moderate agreement. In a sensitivity test following review of headache characteristics recorded, concordance was 0.91, κ = 0.53 (95% CI, 0.28 to 0.79), and PABAK = 0.81 (95% CI, 0.70 to 0.92), a very good agreement. CONCLUSION: We developed and validated a new evidence-based telephone classification interview that can be used by a non-headache specialist to classify common chronic headache types in primary care.
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The authors developed and validated a logic model for use in a telephone interview by a non-headache-expert nurse that allows identification and classification of people meeting entry criteria while excluding people with secondary headaches other than medication overuse and other causes of primary headaches.
“We, therefore, developed and validated a logic model for use in a telephone interview by a nurse (non-headache expert) that would allow us to identify and classify people meeting our entry criteria while also excluding people with secondary headaches, other than medication overuse and other causes of primary headaches (table 1).21”
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- Authors
- Potter, R., Hee, S. W., Griffiths, F., Dodd, K., Hoverd, E., Underwood, M., & Matharu, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Warwick (GB)
- National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Potter, Rachel
- Venue
- The Journal of Headache and Pain
- Published
- 2019-01-08
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 2-2
- ISSN
- 1129-2369 (ISSN-L)
- 1129-2377
- PMC
- PMC6734413
- OpenAlex
- W2939257103
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 1.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Journal of Headache and Pain (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Warwick Research Archive Portal (University of Warwick) (acceptedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute for Health Research (RP-PG-1212-20018)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Migraine and Headache Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Complementary and Manual Therapy › Temporomandibular Joint Disorders
- Keywords
- chronic headache, headache classification, telephone interviews, chronic migraine, tension-type headache, medication overuse headache, secondary headache, interobserver agreement, primary care
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Male, Headache Disorders
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