Aims: To validate the Arabic version of the Migraine Disability Assessment Scale (MIDAS) and to evaluate the impact of the most frequently studied risk factors for migraine disability on the total MIDAS score in a Lebanese population.
Methods: This prospective study was performed from January 2017 to May 2017 and included 44 patients with migraine. Data were obtained using a questionnaire identifying sociodemographic characteristics, medical history, and migraine characteristics. The Arabic MIDAS was used to quantify the disability associated with headaches over a 3-month period. Ten days after completing the MIDAS, the participants were interviewed again to assess test-retest reproducibility. The validity of the MIDAS construct in the Lebanese population was confirmed by carrying out factor analyses for all the items of the questionnaire using the principal component analysis technique with a promax rotation.
Results: The MIDAS items converged over a solution of one factor that had an eigenvalue > 1, explaining a total of 63.25% of the variance (Cronbach's alpha = 0.812). Photophobia, vomiting, and duration of migraine attack of 24 to 48 hours significantly increased the MIDAS score by 21.396, 22.0, and 17.396 points, respectively, whereas a high socioeconomic level significantly decreased the MIDAS score by 6.837 points.
Conclusion: This first linguistically validated Arabic version of the MIDAS was developed to improve migraine management in Arabic-speaking patients. Moreover, the results suggest that having longer migraine duration, more accompanying symptoms, and a low socioeconomic level can increase the MIDAS score and thus the level of disability.