Table 1

Search strategies for MEDLINE, January 1989 to present

1(clinical* important difference? or clinical* meaningful difference? or clinical* meaningful improvement? or clinical* relevant mean difference? or clinical* significant change? or clinical* significant difference? or clinical* important improvement? or clinical* meaningful change? or mcid or minim* clinical* important or minim* clinical* detectable or minim* clinical* significant or minim* detectable difference? or minim* important change? or minim* important difference? or smallest real difference? or subjectively significant difference?).tw.
2“Quality of Life”/
3“outcome assessment(health care)”/or treatment outcome/or treatment failure/
4exp pain/
5exp disease attributes/or exp “signs and symptoms”/
6or/2–5
71 and 6
8health status indicators/or “severity of illness index”/or sickness impact profile/or interviews as topic/or questionnaires/or self report/
9Pain Measurement/
10patient satisfaction/or patient preference/
11or/8–10
127 and 11
13limit 12 to yr=“1989 -Current”
14(quality of life or life qualit??? or hrqol or hrql).mp.
15(assessment? outcome? or measure? outcome? or outcome? studies or outcome? study or outcome? assessment? or outcome? management or outcome? measure* or outcome? research or patient? outcome? or research outcome? or studies outcome? or study outcome? or therap* outcome? or treatment outcome? or treatment failure?).mp.
16pain????.mp.
17((activity or sever* or course) adj3 (disease or disabilit* or symptom*)).mp.
18or/14–17
191 and 18
20(questionnaire? or instrument? or interview? or inventor* or test??? or scale? or subscale? or survey? or index?? or indices or form? or score? or measurement?).mp.
21(patient? rating? or subject* report? or subject* rating? or self report* or self evaluation? or self appraisal? or self assess* or self rating? or self rated).mp.
22(patient? report* or patient? observ* or patient? satisf*).mp.
23anchor base??.mp.
24or/20–23
2519 and 24
26limit 25 to yr=“1989 -Current”
2713 or 26