title: Approaches and recommendations for estimating minimally important differences for health-related quality of life measures.
abstract: We describe currently available approaches for estimating the minimally important difference (MID) and their associated strengths and weaknesses. Specifically, we show that anchor-based methods should be the primary method of estimating the MID because of the limitations of distribution-based methods. In addition, we provide recommendations for estimating the MID in future research.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Division of Health Services, UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095-1736, USA. drhays@ucla.edu
authors.forename: Ron D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Hays
authors.forename: Sepideh S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Farivar
authors.forename: Honghu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000628:therapy*; D011788:Quality of Life; D016896:Treatment Outcome