Clinical responder proportion (symptom-score improvement threshold)

Method

Proportion of participants whose symptom-questionnaire score improves from baseline by at least the trial stated minimal clinically important difference - for lower urinary tract symptoms, a fall of 3 or more points on the AUA Symptom Index or IPSS - pooled as a risk ratio. The questionnaire and the threshold are recorded on the edge.

The method is part of the endpoint identity. Studies measuring the same quantity by a different method are held as separate endpoints.

Notes

CRITICAL SIGN INVERSION against the continuous symptom score it is derived from: the underlying IPSS / AUA Symptom Index improves by FALLING while this responder proportion improves by RISING. Both are computed from the same questionnaire, the same patients and the same paper, so a curator scanning for the questionnaire name lands on the wrong one. They are not redundant either - dichotomisation discards magnitude, so a large mean improvement concentrated in few patients gives a strong continuous effect and a weak responder effect. Distinct also from CAT:outcome/ipss-quality-of-life-item, a single bother item.