[What is clinical relevance?]

Statistical significance is not the same as clinical relevance. Clinical relevance exists only when the patient feels a clear improvement by a measure.

In six doctors' offices, 40 patients were interviewed on the outcome of which they would find an improvement that they could call satisfying. It can be assumed that these directly expressed patient data are an average of improvement.

About 600 responses showed that the frequency of clinically relevant improvements was very different. The data varied depending on the severity of restriction, the level oft he initial values and the measure. On average 41% reported a clinically relevant improvement with a variation of 24% and 57% (95% confidence interval). The largest improvements according to the bootstrap method were e. g. hospitalization (59%) and sleep disturbances (56%), the slightest improvements were e.g. mobility (33%) and intellectual activity (24%).

Clinically relevant improvements, regardless of age, for most severely impaired patients, were associated with only minor changes, while those with mild limitations rated only normal options as satisfactory.