Quality of Life Assessment for Patients with Primary Headache Disorders

Measure Purpose: Improve the quality of life for patients with primary headache disorders

The numerator: Patients whose health related quality of life (HRQoL) was assessed with a tool(s)* during at least two visits during the 12 month measurement period AND whose health related quality of life score* stayed the same or improved*

*See full specifications for additional details

is divided by

The denominator: All patients with a diagnosis of primary headache disorder*

Exclusions are removed from the denominator for: 

• Patient has a cognitive or neuropsychiatric impairment that impairs his/her ability to complete the HRQoL survey
• Patient has the inability to read and/or write in order to complete the HRQoL questionnaire
• Patient does not have insurance to cover the cost of the QoL assessment

Key Phrases

Examples of key phrases you could use to meet this measure:

• MIDAS [followed by numerical score]
• HIT-6 [followed by numerical score]
• PROMIS-29 score not improved
• NDI score not maintained

Measure Calculation Example

Dr. Stewart had 80 patients with primary headache from January 1 to December 31. This is the denominator. Seven patients have a cognitive impairment and cannot participate in the survey. These patients are removed from the denominator.

Of the remaining 73 patients, 5 had a quality of life assessment during two visits in the measurement period. Three maintained their HRQoL score, one improved their HRQoL, and one decreased their HRQoL. The numerator is four (3+1).

Quality of care = (5-1)/(80-7). Dr. Stewart has a score of 5% for this measure.