Responsiveness and Minimal Clinically Important Change: A Comparison Between 2 Shoulder Outcome Measures

Area of Science:

• Orthopedics
• Clinical Measurement
• Surgical Outcomes

Background:

• The Oxford Shoulder Score (OSS) and modified Constant Score (CS) are widely used for shoulder outcome assessment.
• Limited research exists on the responsiveness and minimal clinically important change of the OSS and CS.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the responsiveness and minimal clinically important change of the OSS and CS.
• To evaluate these scores in patients undergoing arthroscopic decompression for subacromial impingement syndrome.

Main Methods:

• A prospective cohort study nested within a randomized controlled trial.
• 126 patients assessed at baseline and 3 months using OSS, CS, and EQ-5D-3L.
• Responsiveness evaluated via correlation, ROC analysis with Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC), and effect sizes.

Main Results:

• Both CS and OSS change scores showed stronger correlation with PGIC than EQ-5D-3L.
• Receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) curves for both scores exceeded 0.80, indicating good responsiveness.
• Minimal clinically important change values were 6 for OSS and 11 for CS.

Conclusions:

• The modified Constant Score (CS) and Oxford Shoulder Score (OSS) are both suitable for evaluating improvement post-decompression surgery.
• These scores exhibit comparable responsiveness and provide valuable data on patient recovery.