ReviewQuality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation2021
Between-group minimally important change versus individual treatment responders.
Review in Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Selection of patient-reported outcome measures in pulmonary arterial hypertension clinical trials: a systematic review, meta-analysis and health-related quality of life framework.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2025Pooled it
- Estimating minimal important change of the National Institutes of health research task force impact score using computer adaptive measures: a secondary analysis of two randomized clinical trials in a military population with chronic pain.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2025Trial
- Mepolizumab improvements in health-related quality of life and disease symptoms in a patient population with very severe chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps: psychometric and efficacy analyses from the SYNAPSE study.Journal of patient-reported outcomes · 2023Trial
- Assessing the Significance of Individual Change in 2 Samples of Patients in Treatment for Low Back Pain Using 5 Different Statistical Indicators.Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeuticsTrial
- Responsiveness and minimal important change of the Dutch Adult Strabismus-20 Questionnaire (Dutch-AS-20).Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Meaningful within-person change estimates do not identify responders to treatment.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Coefficients of Repeatability for Likely Change: Comparison between PROMIS Computer Adaptive Tests and Short Forms.Advances in patient-reported outcomes · 2026Article
- Test-retest variability of the full-field stimulus test in patients with retinitis pigmentosa: REPEAT Study Report No. 4.Acta ophthalmologica · 2026Article
- Psychometric Properties and Prognostic Value of the UCSD Shortness of Breath Questionnaire in Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis: A Prospective Cohort Study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Validity and Reliability of the Japanese Version of the ACE Tool for Assessing Evidence-based Medicine Competencies in Medical Practitioners and Students: An Evaluation in an Online Setting.Internal medicine (Tokyo, Japan) · 2025Article
- The current use and application of thresholds for clinical importance of the EORTC QLQ-C30, the EORTC CAT core and the EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL- a systematic scoping review.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2025Article
- A perspective on the use of patient-reported experience and patient-reported outcome measures in ambulatory healthcare.Expert review of pharmacoeconomics & outcomes research · 2025Review
- Clinical cut-offs for hip- and knee arthroplasty outcome - minimal clinically important improvement (MCII) and patient acceptable symptom state (PASS) of patient-reported outcome measures (PROM).Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- A Consistent Lack of Consistency: Definitions, Evidentiary Expectations and Potential Use of Meaningful Change Data in Clinical Outcome Assessments Across Stakeholders. Results from a DIA Working Group Literature Review and Survey.Therapeutic innovation & regulatory science · 2025Review
- Applicability of the PRISMA-COSMIN guidelines for systematic reviews of outcome measurement instruments to ISOQOL's special interest group for clinical practice.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Significant individual change should be used as a lower bound for anchor based estimates of meaningful change on patient-reported outcome scores.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Comparison of the European Foot and Ankle Score (EFAS) and the Self-Reported Foot and Ankle Score (SEFAS) in patients with foot and ankle surgery.Archives of orthopaedic and trauma surgery · 2024Article
- Commentary on "When (Not) to Rely on the Reliable Change Index".Clinical psychology : a publication of the Division of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association · 2024Article
- Linking QuickDASH and PROMIS Upper-Extremity Computer-Adaptive Test Scores in Hand Surgery: A Crosswalk Study.The Journal of hand surgery · 2024Article
- What does better look like in individuals with severe neurodevelopmental impairments? A qualitative descriptive study on SCN2A-related developmental and epileptic encephalopathy.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeEstimates of the minimally important change (MIC) can be used to evaluate whether group-level differences are large enough to be important. But responders to treatment have been based upon group-level MIC thresholds, resulting in inaccurate classification of change over time. This article reviews options and provides suggestions about individual-level statistics to assess whether individuals have improved, stayed the same, or declined.
methodsReview of MIC estimation and an example of misapplication of MIC group-level estimates to assess individual change. Secondary data analysis to show how perceptions about meaningful change can be used along with significance of individual change.
resultsMIC thresholds yield over-optimistic conclusions about responders to treatment because they classify those who have not changed as responders.
conclusionsFuture studies need to evaluate the significance of individual change using appropriate individual-level statistics such as the reliable change index or the equivalent coefficient of repeatability. Supplementing individual statistical significance with retrospective assessments of change is desirable.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.