Interpretation of rhinoconjunctivitis quality of life questionnaire data,☆☆,,★★

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Patients

Sixty-one adults (17 to 66 years) with moderate to severe ragweed pollen–induced rhinoconjunctivitis participated in the study. All were participants in a clinical trial, and the method of recruitment and the subjects’ demographic characteristics have been reported in detail elsewhere.3 All patients signed an informed consent form, which had been approved by the McMaster University Medical Centre Ethics Committee.

Study design

The main study was a randomized trial designed to determine whether better

RESULTS

All 61 patients completed the first two visits, and 60 completed all three visits and provided complete data sets. Mean changes in score of the RQLQ between consecutive clinical visits for each ranking of global rating of change (no change, minimal, moderate, and large) are shown in Table I. The results for improvement and deterioration were symmetrical, and so we have combined the results to give a more precise estimate of the mean value for each category. For patients who remained stable or

DISCUSSION

The results provide evidence that mean changes in score from the RQLQ of greater than approximately 0.5 can be considered of clinical importance and would justify a change in the patient’s treatment in the absence of troublesome side effects or excessive cost.

These results are very similar to the MID (approximately 0.5) determined for other disease-specific quality of life questionnaires that use 7-point response options (e.g., asthma, pediatric asthma, chronic respiratory disease, heart

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From aDepartment of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and bDepartment of Medicine, McMaster University Faculty of Health Sciences, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

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Supported by a grant from Glaxo Wellcome Inc.

Reprint requests: Elizabeth Juniper, MCSP, MSc, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University Medical Centre, Rm 2C11, 1200 Main St., West, Hamilton, Ontario, L8N 3Z5, Canada.

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