Interpreting Outcomes 3-Clinical Meaningfulness: Linking Evidence to Practice

To judge whether one treatment is more effective than another, we need to know how big the difference is. One way of judging the size of the difference reported in a trial is to ask whether it is "clinically meaningful" (or clinically worthwhile): "The smallest change that is important to patients." A treatment is often said to be "effective" and recommended for practice when the between-group difference in a study is larger than the clinically meaningful effect. But this simple idea hides some complexity. This Evidence in Practice article aims to explain the definitions, interpretations, and implications of minimally important change (MIC), minimal clinically important change (MCIC), and minimal clinically important difference (MCID). J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2019;49(9):677-678. doi:10.2519/jospt.2019.0705.