title: A clinically meaningful difference was generated for a performance measure of recovery from hip fracture.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Lower Extremity Gain Scale (LEGS) is a performance measure of tasks that are often impaired in hip fracture patients. This study was designed to determine a clinically meaningful difference in LEGS.
  
  
  METHODS
  The population was 139 female patients (age >65 years) admitted to Baltimore hospitals. Recovery levels were estimated by fitting trajectory curves for the cohort for the 12 months post fracture. The clinically meaningful difference was evaluated using an anchor-based approach, examining the relationship between the LEGS recovery level and age. A second, distribution-based method used an effect size of .20.
  
  
  RESULTS
  According to our model, a difference of 5 years in age corresponded to a difference of 1.6-3.6 points in LEGS scores. The standard deviation for LEGS at 12 months was 8.0; thus, Cohen's effect size of 0.2 would equate to a difference of 1.6 points.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This suggests that a clinically meaningful difference in the LEGS scores for a population in this age range would be 2-3 points.
authors.affiliation: Division of Gerontology, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. whawkes@epi.umaryland.edu
authors.forename: W G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Hawkes
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zimmerman
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lapuerta
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Orwig
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wehren
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hebel
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Magaziner
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006620:Hip Fractures / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006621:Hip Joint / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D020127:Recovery of Function; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016896:Treatment Outcome