Minimal Clinically Important Difference (MCID) in the Functional Status Measures in Patients with Stroke: Inverse Probability Treatment Weighting

Abstract

This study proposed to evaluate the temporal trend, define the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) for five functional status measures, and identify risk factors for reaching deterioration in the MCID. This prospective cohort study analyzed 680 patients with ischemic stroke and 151 patients with hemorrhagic stroke at six hospitals between April 2015 and October 2021. All patients completed the functional status measures before rehabilitation (baseline), and at the 12th week and 2nd year after rehabilitation. Patients in the post-acute care (PAC) group exhibited significantly larger improvements for the functional status measures compared to those in the non-PAC group (p p < 0.05). These findings suggest that if the mean change scores of the functional status measures have reached the thresholds, the change scores can be perceived by patients as clinically important.

Keywords

• ischemic stroke
• hemorrhagic stroke
• post-acute care
• minimal clinically important difference
• deterioration