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 .
Clinically important difference thresholds of the visual analog scale: A conceptual model for identifying meaningful intraindividual changes for pain intensity
Summary A range of clinical ly important difference values is provided according to the patients ’ baseline pain severity and duration of pain . Abstract The aim of this study was to estimate a range of clinical ly important difference ( CID ) values of the visual analog scale for pain intensity ( VAS‐PI ) , and to assess the effect of patient baseline characteristics on VAS change scores . Data from a prospect i ve cohort study with 678 patients with subacute and chronic temporom and ibular disorder pain were analyzed . Patients were divided into 9 cohorts on the basis of the baseline VAS score and the duration of pain . The CID was estimated over a 12‐week period , and 2 different methods were used : ( 1 ) mean change scores , and ( 2 ) optimal cutoff point in receiver operator characteristic curves . The patient 's global impression of change was used as an external criterion . The general linear model univariate analysis was applied to assess the effect of baseline pain level and duration of pain on the raw VAS change scores , while adjusting for age and sex . The CID mean change ranged from 20.9 to 57.5 mm ( 64.1–76.3 % ) , and the CID optimal cutoff point from 11.5 to 28.5 mm ( 29.9–47.7 % ) . For the VAS change scores , the main effect of the variable baseline pain level was significant ( F = 107.09 , P < .001 ) . However , there was no significant baseline pain level by duration of pain interaction effect ( F = 1.13 , P = .340 ) . On the basis of the results , we advocate the choice of a single CID value according to the context of the patient 's baseline level of pain
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 .