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 .
Estimation of clinically important change for visual analog scales measuring chronic temporomandibular disorder pain.
AIMS To estimate the clinical ly important change ( CIC ) on a 100-mm visual analog scale for pain intensity ( VAS-PI ) by relating it to the patient 's global impression of change ( PGIC ) in patients with chronic temporom and ibular disorder ( TMD ) pain and to assess the dependency of the CIC on their baseline pain scores . METHODS Data from a prospect i ve cohort study with 588 patients with chronic TMD pain were analyzed . The CIC was estimated over a 3-month period , and receiver operating characteristic methods were used to assess the optimal cut-off point . The PGIC category of " much improved " served as an external criterion . Dependency of absolute and percent change on baseline VAS-PI scores was determined by linear regression analysis . RESULTS A VAS-PI change score of -19.5 mm and a percent change score of -37.9 % were best associated with the concept of CIC . Since patients with high baseline pain required greater absolute reductions in pain to reach a clinical ly important improvement , percent change scores performed better in classifying improved patients . CONCLUSION Providing a st and ard definition of the CIC adds to the interpretability of study results , ie , the estimates will aid in underst and ing individual patient outcomes
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 .