Minimal Clinically Important Differences for the Modified Rodnan Skin Score: Results from the Scleroderma Lung Studies (SLS-I and SLS-II)

Table 3 Estimation of MCID estimates in mRSS using SF-36 health transition anchor for all participants

Change in mRSS by level of anchors—SF-36 health transition item	N	Unadjusted mean			Effect size
	N	Mean	95% LCL	95% UCL	Effect size
Overall
Much better (1)	50	− 5.64	− 7.31	− 3.97	− 0.53
Somewhat better (2) (MCID estimate for improvement)	35	− 2.86	− 4.94	− 0.78	− 0.27
Same (3)	67	− 2.72	− 3.96	− 1.48	− 0.25
Somewhat worse (4)	32	− 1.66	− 4.04	0.73	− 0.15
Much worse (5)	3	− 4.67	− 20.64	11.3	− 0.44
Diffuse SSc
Much better (1)	35	− 7.66	− 9.64	− 5.67	− 0.80
Somewhat better (2) (MCID estimate for improvement)	23	− 4.70	− 7.38	− 2.01	− 0.49
Same (3)	36	− 4.61	− 6.56	− 2.66	− 0.48
Somewhat worse (4)	20	− 2.25	− 6.12	1.62	− 0.23
Much worse (5)	1	− 12.00
Limited SSc
Much better (1)	15	− 0.93	− 2.28	0.41	− 0.26
Somewhat better (2) (MCID estimate for improvement)	12	0.67	− 1.82	3.15	0.19
Same (3)	31	− 0.52	− 1.61	0.58	− 0.14
Somewhat worse (4)	12	− 0.67	− 1.76	0.43	− 0.19
Much worse (5)	2	− 1.00	− 13.71	11.71	− 0.28

LCL lower confidence limit, MCID minimal clinically important difference, mRSS modified Rodnan Skin Score, SF-36 Short Form-36, SSc systemic sclerosis, UCL upper confidence limit

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