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Abstract
Background: Self-management support programmes are effective in a range of chronic conditions however there
is limited evidence for their use in the treatment of chronic headaches. The aim of this study was to test the
feasibility of four key aspects of a planned, future evaluative trial of a new education and self-management
intervention for people with chronic headache: 1) recruiting people with chronic headache from primary care; 2) a
telephone interview for the classification of chronic headaches; 3) the education and self-management intervention
itself; and 4) the most appropriate patient reported outcomes (PROMS).
Methods: Participants were identified and recruited from general practices in the West Midlands of the UK. We
developed a nurse-led chronic headache classification interview and assessed agreement with an interview with
headache specialists. We developed and tested a group based education and self-management intervention to
assess training and delivery receipt using observation, facilitator, and participant feedback. We explored the
acceptability and relevance of PROMs using postal questionnaires, interviews and a smartphone app.
Results: Fourteen practices took part in the study and participant recruitment equated to 1.0/1000 registered
patients. Challenges to recruitment were identified. We did 107 paired headache classification interviews. The level
of agreement between nurse and doctor interviews was very good. We piloted the intervention in four groups with
18 participants. Qualitative feedback from participants and facilitators helped refine the intervention including
shortening the overall intervention and increasing the facilitator training time. Participants completed 131 baseline
questionnaires, measurement data quality, reliability and validity for headache-specific and generic measures was
acceptable.
Conclusion: This study indicated that recruiting people with chronic headache from primary care is feasible but
challenging, our headache classification interview is fit for purpose, our study intervention is viable, and that our
choice of outcome measures is acceptable to participants in a future randomised controlled trial (RCT).