Psychosocial headache measures in Caucasian and African American headache patients: psychometric attributes and measurement invariance.

Introduction: As research increasingly examines differences in headache characteristics between Caucasian and African American headache patients, it is requisite to determine the equivalence of existing headache measures for both racial groups.

Methods: This study examined the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of four widely used psychosocial headache measures. Caucasians (N = 173) and African Americans (N = 114) receiving treatment in four headache subspecialty clinics throughout Ohio completed the Headache Disability Inventory (HDI), the Migraine-Specific Quality of Life (MSQL) measure, the Headache Management Self-Efficacy (HMSE) scale, and the Headache-Specific Locus of Control (HSLC) scale prior to initiating new preventive therapies.

Conclusion: All measures demonstrated good internal consistency and measurement invariance. Despite adequate measurement invariance, the recommended factor structure of the HMSE scale yielded a poor fit for both African American and Caucasian patients. With perhaps the exception of the HMSE scale, the HDI, MSQL scale and HSLC scale are psychometrically sound and can be used with both Caucasian and African American headache patients.