Change in Health-Related Quality-of-Life at Group and Individual Levels Over Time in Patients Treated for Chronic
Marc Brodsky1, Karen Spritzer2, Ron D Hays2
11 Stamford Hospital, Stamford, CT, USA.
Background:
This study evaluated change in health-related quality of life at the group and individual levels in a consecutive series of patients with chronic myofascial neck pain.
Methods:
Fifty patients with chronic neck pain self-administered the Short Form-36 Version 2 (SF-36 v2) before treatment and 6 weeks later. Internal consistency reliability was estimated for the 8 scale scores and Mosier's formula was used to estimate reliability of the physical and mental health composite scores. Significance of group-level change was estimated using within-group t statistics. Significance of individual change was evaluated by reliable change index.
Results:
Statistically significant ( P < .05) group mean improvement over time was found for all SF-36 scores. At the individual level, 20% of the possible changes were statistically significant (17% improvement, 3% decline).
Conclusions:
Estimating the significance of individual change in health-related quality of life adds important information in comparing different treatment modalities for chronic myofascial neck pain.
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