International Journal of Inflammation / 2011 / Article / Tab 2 / Review Article
Definition of Nonresponse to Analgesic Treatment of Arthritic Pain: An Analytical Literature Review of the Smallest Detectable Difference, the Minimal Detectable Change, and the Minimal Clinically Important Difference on the Pain Visual Analog Scale Table 2 Minimal clinically important difference on the 0–100 mm pain VAS.
Study Patients Anchor MCID Type Points Responses Definition Points on anchor scale Units on VASa Pope et al. 2009 [24 ] RA PGA 5 Much worsened, somewhat worsened, same, somewhat improved, much improved Difference between “same” and “somewhat improved or somewhat worsened” ±1 point −11.9, +6.8 Tubach et al. 2005 [30 ] OA PGA 5 None, poor, fair, good, excellent Difference between “none” and “good” response +3 points −19.9 (knee) −15.3 (hip) Hägg et al. 2003 [18 ] Back pain PGA 4 Worse, unchanged, better, much better Difference between “unchanged’ and “better” or “worse” ±1 point −18, +8 Ehrich et al. 2000 [26 ] OA PGA 5 None, poor, fair, good, excellent Difference between “none” and “poor” response on the PGAb +1 point −11.1
MCID; minimal clinically important difference; PGA: patient global assessment of response.
a Negative values indicate improvement, and positive ones indicate deterioration.
b Defined as minimal perceptible clinical improvement.