Absolute MCID was strongly associated with baseline pain , explaining approximately two-thirds of the variation , and to a lesser degree with the operational definition of minimum pain relief and clinical condition .
MCID  for chronic pain relief vary considerably .
Baseline pain is strongly associated with absolute , but not relative , measures .
To a much lesser degree , MCID is also influenced by the operational definition of relevant pain relief and possibly by clinical condition .
BACKGROUND The minimum clinical ly important difference ( MCID ) is used to interpret the relevance of treatment effects , e.g. , when developing clinical guidelines , evaluating trial results or planning sample sizes .
There is currently no agreement on an appropriate MCID in chronic pain and little is known about which context ual factors cause variation .
METHODS This is a systematic review .
Evaluation of clinically relevant states in patient reported outcomes in knee and hip osteoarthritis: the patient acceptable symptom state.
BACKGROUND The patient acceptable symptom state ( PASS ) is the value beyond which patients can consider themselves well . This concept can help in interpreting results of clinical trials . OBJECTIVE To determine the PASS estimate for patients with knee and hip osteoarthritis ( OA ) by assessing pain , patient 's global assessment of disease activity , and functional impairment . METHODS A 4 week prospect i ve multicentre cohort study of 1362 out patients with knee or hip OA was carried out . Data on assessment of pain and patient 's global assessment of disease , measured on visual analogue scales , and functional impairment , measured on the Western Ontario McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index ( WOMAC ) function subscale , were collected at baseline and final visits . The patients assessed their satisfaction with their current state at the final visit . An anchoring method based on the patient 's opinion was used . RESULTS For patients with knee and hip OA , the estimates of PASS were , respectively , 32.3 and 35.0 mm for pain , 32.0 and 34.6 mm for patient global assessment of disease activity , and 31.0 and 34.4 points for WOMAC function score . The PASS varied moderately across the tertiles of baseline scores but not across age , disease duration , or sex . CONCLUSION The use of PASS in clinical trials would provide more meaningful results expressed as a proportion of patients in an acceptable symptom state
Absolute MCID was strongly associated with baseline pain , explaining approximately two-thirds of the variation , and to a lesser degree with the operational definition of minimum pain relief and clinical condition .
MCID  for chronic pain relief vary considerably .
Baseline pain is strongly associated with absolute , but not relative , measures .
To a much lesser degree , MCID is also influenced by the operational definition of relevant pain relief and possibly by clinical condition .
BACKGROUND The minimum clinical ly important difference ( MCID ) is used to interpret the relevance of treatment effects , e.g. , when developing clinical guidelines , evaluating trial results or planning sample sizes .
There is currently no agreement on an appropriate MCID in chronic pain and little is known about which context ual factors cause variation .
METHODS This is a systematic review .