1 Before you use it
What it is
Twenty-five items across an emotional and a functional subscale, quantifying how much headache is affecting the patient's life.
Use this rather than HIT-6, which is licensed.
When to reach for it
Any headache presentation on an MSK list — cervicogenic above all, but also where a patient carries a migraine or tension-type diagnosis and you are treating the cervical contribution.
Baseline it before you start treating a neck for headache, or you will have no way of showing that the headache changed rather than just the neck.
Patterns it serves · 4
2 Giving it
Scoring
Each item scored yes (4), sometimes (2) or no (0), summed to 0–100. Higher means more disability. Report the emotional and functional subscales separately.
What it doesn’t measure
It does not diagnose the headache type, and that classification matters enormously — cervicogenic, migraine, tension-type and cluster have different pages and different implications.
It also does not measure frequency or duration. Add a simple headache diary.
3 Reading the score
Interpreting it
Interpret against baseline.
The emotional subscale is the one that shifts a management plan — a headache that is dominating mood and anticipation is not treated the same way as one that is merely painful.
Is the change real?
Student trap. Measuring the neck and not the headache. If the headache is the complaint, the headache needs the baseline.
Official source: null. We don't host the form.
This is a learning tool. It does not diagnose patients and does not replace your clinical educator.
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