Related Experiment Videos
How much is enough and who says so?
Con J Kelleher1, Andreas M Pleil, Pat Ray Reese
1Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital Trust, London, UK.
Summary
A change of at least 5 points on the King's Health Questionnaire indicates a clinically meaningful improvement in health-related quality of life for patients with lower urinary tract dysfunction.
Area of Science:
- Urology
- Health Outcomes Research
Background:
- Assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) requires translating statistical changes into clinically meaningful ones.
- Lower urinary tract dysfunction (LUTD) significantly impacts patient well-being.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the minimal important difference (MID) for the King's Health Questionnaire (KHQ).
- The KHQ is a condition-specific HRQoL measure for men and women with LUTD.
Main Methods:
- Anchor-based methods using patient-perceived treatment benefit and disease impact ratings.
- Distribution-based method using effect size for comparison.
- KHQ administered to overactive bladder patients in multinational studies.
Main Results:
- Anchor-based MID ranged from 5-10 points (excluding no-change patients) and 6-12 points (for slight improvement).
- Effect size method indicated MIDs of 5-6 points (small effect) and 10-15 points (medium effect).
Conclusions:
- Anchor-based and distribution-based approaches yielded similar MID results for the KHQ.
- A KHQ score change of ≥5 points signifies a clinically meaningful improvement in HRQoL.
- Convergent findings across methods increase confidence in the KHQ's derived MID values for LUTD patients.