Observational studyBMC musculoskeletal disorders2019
Minimal clinically important decline in physical function over one year: EPOSA study.
Observational study in BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- The short-term efficacy of heat therapy for osteoarthritis of the hands: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of rehabilitation medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Relationships between diagnostic imaging of first carpometacarpal osteoarthritis and pain, functional status, and disease progression: A systematic review.Osteoarthritis and cartilage · 2024Pooled it
- Economic and Humanistic Burden of Osteoarthritis: An Updated Systematic Review of Large Sample Studies.PharmacoEconomics · 2023Pooled it
- Does Long-Term Lower Extremity Strength Training in Adults With Knee Osteoarthritis and Varus Alignment Reduce Knee Joint Loading During Gait?Arthritis care & research · 2026Trial
- Disparities Between Rural and Urban Communities: Response to 18 Months of Diet and Exercise Versus Control for Knee Osteoarthritis and Overweight or Obesity.Arthritis care & research · 2025Trial
- Effect of heated mittens on physical hand function in people with hand osteoarthritis: randomised controlled trial.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Comparative Outcomes of Delayed i-PRF Combination with Nanofracture in the Treatment of Large Chondral Defects in the Knee.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Clinical, Health-Related Quality of Life, and Gait Differences Among Obesity Classes in Adults With Knee Osteoarthritis.Arthritis care & research · 2024Article
- An Evaluation of Patient-reported Outcome Measures and Minimal Clinically Important Difference Usage in Hand Surgery.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2023Article
- Preoperative patients' health decrease moderately, while hospital costs increase for hip and knee replacement due to the first COVID-19 lockdown in Germany.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2022Article
- Evaluation of the PROMIS Upper Extremity Against Validated Patient-Reported Outcomes in Patients With Early Carpometacarpal Osteoarthritis.The Journal of hand surgery · 2022Article
- The Association of AUSCAN and PRWHE Patient-reported Outcome Measures With Radiographic Progression of Early Thumb Carpometacarpal Arthritis at 36-Month Follow-up Is Limited to Subtle Changes in the Pain Subscale.Hand (New York, N.Y.) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
21 authors at 7 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe Australian/Canadian hand Osteoarthritis Index (AUSCAN) and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities knee and hip Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) are the most commonly used clinical tools to manage and monitor osteoarthritis (OA). Few studies have as yet reported longitudinal changes in the AUSCAN index regarding the hand. While there are published data regarding WOMAC assessments of the hip and the knee, the two sites have always evaluated separately. The current study therefore sought to determine the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) in decline in the AUSCAN hand and WOMAC hip/knee physical function scores over 1 year using anchor-based and distribution-based methods.
methodsThe study analysed data collected by the European Project on Osteoarthritis, a prospective observational study investigating six adult cohorts with and without OA by evaluating changes in the AUSCAN and WOMAC physical function scores at baseline and 12-18 months later. Pain and stiffness scores, the performance-based grip strength and walking speed and health-related quality of life measures were used as the study's anchors. Receiver operating characteristic curves and distribution-based methods were used to estimate the MCID in the AUSCAN and WOMAC physical function scores; only the data of those participants who possessed paired (baseline and follow up-measures) AUSCAN and WOMAC scores were included in the analysis.
resultsOut of the 1866 participants who were evaluated, 1842 had paired AUSCAN scores and 1845 had paired WOMAC scores. The changes in the AUSCAN physical function score correlated significantly with those in the AUSCAN pain score (r = 0.31). Anchor- and distribution-based approaches converged identifying 4 as the MCID for decline in the AUSCAN hand physical function. Changes in the WOMAC hip/knee physical function score were significantly correlated with changes in both the WOMAC pain score (r = 0.47) and the WOMAC stiffness score (r = 0.35). The different approaches converged identifying two as the MCID for decline in the WOMAC hip/knee physical function.
conclusionsThe most reliable MCID estimates of decline over 1 year in the AUSCAN hand and WOMAC hip/knee physical function scores were 4 and 2 points, respectively.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.