MIDAS score (Migraine Disability Assessment Score) was formulated as a way of giving a number to how badly migraines were affecting people's lives and this became particularly useful in terms of chronic daily migraine.
The test consists of 5 questions:
1. on how many days in the last 3 months did you miss school/work due to migraines/headaches?
2. on how many days in the last three months was the productivity of your work at school/work reduced by half or more because of your headaches? (do not include days counted in Q1)
3. on how many days in the last 3 months did you not do household work due to headaches?
4. on how many days in the last 3 months was your productivity in household work reduced by half or more because of your headaches? (do not include days counted in Q3)
5. on how many days did you miss family, social or leisure activities in the past 3 months because of your headaches?
Your MIDAS score is then calculated by adding all the number from each question together.
- 0 to 5, MIDAS Grade I, Little or no disability
- 6 to 10, MIDAS Grade II, Mild disability
- 11 to 20, MIDAS Grade III, Moderate disability
- 21+, MIDAS Grade IV, Severe disability
The MIDAS questionnaire also includes two other questions that are not used for calculating your disability score, but that give one more way to illustrate to your healthcare provider how migraines affect you.
- On how many days in the last 3 months did you have a headache? (If a headache lasted more than 1 day, count each day.)
- On a scale of 0 to 10, on average how painful were these headaches? (where 0 = no pain at all and 10 = pain as bad as it can be.)
For further discussion on the impact on headaches and the effectiveness of the MIDAS assessment a good presentation can be found by following this link www.mipca.org.uk/ppt/Headache_
