Purpose
To determine the change in score required in various domains of the Michigan Hand
Outcomes Questionnaire (MHQ) to indicate meaningful patient improvement, or the minimal
clinically important difference (MCID), for 3 common hand conditions: rheumatoid arthritis
(RA), carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and distal radius fracture (DRF).
Methods
The MHQ was administered to patients at 2 time points. Patient satisfaction was defined
as a satisfaction score ≥80% of the standard deviation of that patient sample. The
minimal change in score in specific MHQ domains that corresponded with patient satisfaction
was determined using receiver operating characteristic curves.
Results
For CTS patients, MCIDs of 23, 13, and 8 were identified for the pain, function, and
work domains, respectively. For RA patients, pain and function were also identified
as having discriminative ability, with MCIDs of 11 and 13, respectively. An MCID of
3 was identified for the activities of daily living domain. For DRF patients, no MHQ
domains showed discriminative ability because of the ceiling effect at the 3-month
assessment period.
Conclusions
Individual domains of the MHQ can be used to discriminate between patients who are
satisfied and those who are not after either carpal tunnel release or silicone arthroplasty
of the metacarpophalangeal joints for RA. Pain and function are the domains of the
MHQ that are best able to discriminate between patients who are satisfied and those
who are not. The identical function MCID for both RA patients and CTS patients, despite
markedly different preoperative values, indicates that a standard amount of functional
change may indicate patient satisfaction. High postoperative satisfaction, even only
3 months after surgery, prevented any domains from showing discriminative ability
for the DRF patients.
Type of study/level of evidence
Diagnostic III.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
November 3,
2008
Received:
October 15,
2008
Footnotes
Supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (R01 AR047328) and a Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24 AR053120) (to K. C. C).
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 Published by Elsevier Inc.
