The Minimal Important Difference or sometimes Mimum Important Change or Minimal|Minimum Clinically Important Difference (MID/MCID) is an attempt to define a change on some measure that is the minimum that would feel important to achieve for clients. It’s essentially a subjective quantity. It is often confused with the Reliable Change Index (RCI, q.v., same thing as the Reliable Change Criterion) which is also, confusingly, sometimes referred to as the Minimal Detectable Change.
Details #
Despite all the very similar names this is not a bit of statistical or psychometric maths, it’s just a judgement about how much change is large enough that people would consider it the minimum worth achieving or the minimum that would make an intervention worthwhile. There are various ways of finding some sort of consensus amongst people about this but they are all about sensible compromises and all have recognise that individuals will differ in what they consider a minimum worthwhile change.
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Chapters #
Not covered in the OMbook.
Online resources #
None likely.
Dates #
First created 30.vii.25.
