caa a22 4500 44579819X CHVBK 20180317145132.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20111201xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11017-011-9186-9 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11017-011-9186-9 McClimans Leah Department of Philosophy, University of South Carolina, 901 Sumter Street, 29208, Columbia, SC, USA aut Interpretability, validity, and the minimum important difference [Elektronische Daten] [Leah McClimans] Patient-reported outcomes are increasingly used as dependent variables in studies regarding the effectiveness of clinical interventions. But patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) do not provide intuitively meaningful data. For instance, it is not clear what a five point increase or decrease on a particular scale signifies. Establishing ‘interpretability' involves making changes in outcomes meaningful. Attempts to interpret PROMs have led to the development of methods for identifying a minimum important difference (MID). In this paper, however, I draw on Charles Taylor's distinction between weak and strong evaluations to suggest that identifying a MID, specifically, a MID that uses a patient-reported reference group, may not provide an adequate interpretation of these measures. Moreover, I argue that the difficulty with interpreting these measures is tied to a larger problem concerning their validity. If researchers wish to interpret PROMs, they may first need to know more about the constructs they attempt to measure, namely, quality of life. Springer Science+Business Media B.V., 2011 Interpretation nationallicence Charles Taylor nationallicence Measurement nationallicence Quality of life nationallicence Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics Springer Netherlands 32/6(2011-12-01), 389-401 1386-7415 32:6<389 2011 32 11017 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-011-9186-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-011-9186-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- McClimans Leah Department of Philosophy, University of South Carolina, 901 Sumter Street, 29208, Columbia, SC, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics Springer Netherlands 32/6(2011-12-01), 389-401 1386-7415 32:6<389 2011 32 11017 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer