MIDAS calculator: score your migraine disability
MIDAS turns three months of migraine into one number your neurologist already knows how to read. Answer five questions below and you have it, along with the grade it falls into and the five answers behind it, which are the part worth talking about.
Your MIDAS score
Think back over the last three months and answer in whole days. Everything is worked out in your browser: nothing is stored and nothing is sent anywhere.
Days lost
Whole days migraine took.
Days at half speed
Days you kept going, badly. Days you already entered above do not count again here.
Grade I · Little or no disability
MIDAS (Migraine Disability Assessment) was developed by Stewart, Lipton and colleagues. This page asks its five items in Umbra's own words and scores them the published way. Reference: National Headache Foundation, headaches.org.
What MIDAS actually measures
Not how much a migraine hurts. How many days it took. The instrument asks about three parts of life over the last 90 days: paid work or study, the work your home needs, and time with the people in it. In each one it separates the days migraine erased completely from the days you got through at less than half speed, and then it adds them up.
That distinction is the whole design. A person who works through every attack and a person who goes to bed can report the same number of headache days and the same intensity, and live two different lives. The score notices the difference; a headache count does not.
How the score is graded
The total falls into one of four grades. The boundaries are fixed and published, which is exactly why the number travels: a doctor reading "grade III" does not have to ask which app produced it.
| Score | Grade | What it describes |
|---|---|---|
| 0-5 | I | Little or no disability |
| 6-10 | II | Mild disability |
| 11-20 | III | Moderate disability |
| 21+ | IV | Severe disability |
Grade IV is open-ended. Twenty-one days and seventy days are both grade IV, and the second is a very different three months, so bring the five answers, not only the total.
Two things people get wrong when they answer it
Counting the same day twice
The two "slowed" questions exclude days already counted as lost. If Tuesday was a day you did no work at all, Tuesday belongs in "work or study lost" and nowhere else. Answering the lost questions first, the way the calculator above is ordered, makes this hard to get wrong.
Answering for a good three months
MIDAS asks about the previous 90 days, not about a typical quarter. If the last three months were unusually calm, the score will be low, and that is the correct answer: what changes between two appointments is the point of taking it twice.
What the number is for
It gives a conversation a starting point that is not "quite a lot, I think". A score answers the question every neurologist asks in some form, it can be compared with the last one you gave, and it puts a size on something that is otherwise a memory of bad days.
MIDAS describes disability. It is not a diagnosis, it does not say which treatment fits you, and no threshold in it decides anything on its own. What it does well is make sure the person treating you is looking at the same three months you are.
Answer it once every three months, without remembering to
Umbra includes the same questionnaire, and it already knows part of the answer:
- Each field is pre-filled from your log as a starting point, based on the days you recorded and how bad they were, and every one of them is editable, because only you know whether a headache cost you a day of work
- The score and grade update while you type
- An optional reminder every three months, so the score at your next appointment is current
- The score, the grade and all five answers are printed on the PDF report you hand to your doctor
Nothing about it is sold to you: the questionnaire, the score and the reminder are free, and no notification about MIDAS ever mentions an upgrade.
Quick answers
What is a high MIDAS score?
21 or more puts you in grade IV, the top band, and there is no ceiling above it. A score of 21 and a score of 70 are both grade IV and describe very different three months, which is why the five answers are worth bringing along with the total.
How often should I answer it?
Every three months. The questionnaire asks about the previous 90 days, so answering it more often measures overlapping periods, and answering it less often means the score you bring to an appointment describes a stretch of time you can no longer remember clearly.
Can an app work out my MIDAS score from my diary?
Not honestly. Two of the five items ask about days lost from work and from family life, and no diary knows whether a headache cost you a day of work. A diary can offer a starting point from the days you logged and how bad they were, but the answers have to be yours.
Are these the exact words of the official form?
No, and deliberately so. MIDAS is published under copyright, and what that copyright protects is the wording of the five questions, not what they measure. The three domains, the 90-day window, the sum and the four grade bands are the method, so this page asks the same five things in its own words and scores them the published way. The score you get is comparable with one from a form filled in a clinic.
Does this calculator send my answers anywhere?
No. The arithmetic runs in your browser, nothing is stored and nothing is transmitted. Close the tab and the answers are gone.
Track the three months, not just the score
Umbra logs an attack from Siri, a widget or the Action button, dims itself while it lasts, and turns your history into a PDF with your MIDAS score on page one. Free to log, no account, on iPhone.
This guide is for information only and is not medical advice. MIDAS describes disability; it is not a diagnosis, and no score on this page decides anything about your treatment. Umbra is not a medical device. Talk to your doctor or another qualified healthcare professional about your symptoms, your medication and anything you notice in your history.