A Cross Sectional Observational Study to Assess Clinical Characteristics, Prescription Pattern and Health Related Quality of Life in Migraine Patients at Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Objectives: The present study was focused on assessing the clinical characteristics which include the symptom profile, triggering factors, prescription pattern, headache-related disability, and its impact on patients’ HRQoL. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted from October 2019 to March 2020 at the Department of Neurology, Dhiraj General Hospital-Vadodara. The data was collected from the prescription prescribed by the respective neurologist and by filling a pre designed questionnaire. All patients who met the inclusion criteria enrolled in a study. Results: In this study, the incidence of migraine is higher in females (78%), than males (23%). The majority of patients were having a severe disability and severe impact on HRQoL with high MIDAS (Migraine Disability Assessment Scale) and HIT-6 (Headache Impact Test-6) scores in opposing MSQoL v2.1 [Migraine Specific Quality of Life (Version 2.1)] where the majority of patients gained less score showing poor quality of life. A higher MIDAS score was observed in chronic migraineurs than episodic migraineurs (32.42 ±18.65 and 30.15 ±18.93) while HIT-6 showed a comparable score (63.98 ±6 and 63.38 ±6.29). Unlike MIDAS and HIT-6, MSQoL v2.1 showed less scores in chronic migraineurs than episodic migraineurs (45.66 ±22.59 and 48.82 ±23.77) which depicts that chronic migraineurs had a poor health-related quality of life than the episodic migraineurs. Conclusion: To conclude, healthcare professionals routinely evaluate the quality of life and related disability to determine whether patients are receiving effective treatment and whether any additional treatment strategies are warranted to enhance QOL.