Brigden, Amberly, Parslow, Roxanne M, Gaunt, Daisy et al. · Health and quality of life outcomes · 2018 · DOI
This study determined the smallest meaningful improvement in physical function that children and teenagers with ME/CFS can experience. Researchers asked young patients and their parents what amount of improvement would feel worthwhile, and they also analyzed clinical data from a specialist service. They found that an improvement of 10 points on a standard physical function scale represents a clinically meaningful change for children with ME/CFS.
Establishing the MCID is essential for designing and interpreting clinical trials in paediatric ME/CFS, ensuring that statistical improvements translate to clinically meaningful changes in patients' lives. This study incorporates both patient perspectives and quantitative data, addressing a gap in paediatric-specific outcome measurement. Using a standardized MCID of 10 points will improve the quality and comparability of future treatment studies.
This study does not prove that any particular treatment is effective—it only establishes what level of change matters to patients. The study is limited to a UK specialist service population and may not generalize to all ME/CFS populations globally. The findings describe the magnitude of meaningful change but do not identify which interventions can achieve this improvement.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Brigden, Amberly, Parslow, Roxanne M, Gaunt, Daisy, Collin, Simon M, Jones, Andy, & Crawley, Esther (2018). Defining the minimally clinically important difference of the SF-36 physical function subscale for paediatric CFS/ME: triangulation using three different methods.. Health and quality of life outcomes. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-018-1028-2
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-brigden-2018-defining-minimally,
author = {Brigden, Amberly and Parslow, Roxanne M and Gaunt, Daisy and Collin, Simon M and Jones, Andy and Crawley, Esther},
title = {Defining the minimally clinically important difference of the SF-36 physical function subscale for paediatric CFS/ME: triangulation using three different methods.},
journal = {Health and quality of life outcomes},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1186/s12955-018-1028-2},
note = {PubMed: 30340599},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/brigden-2018-defining-minimally},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/brigden-2018-defining-minimally
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