Clinical significance is a perceived, valued, and functionally relevant discrepancy in symptoms/abilities that reflects an important change in functioning. This can involve either an improvement (usually as a result of treatment or intervention) or a decline (typically due progression of illness or disorder) as measured by symptoms or impairment level.
Clinical significance also refers to a static condition of import – for example, a functionally relevant discrepancy between cognitive abilities in different domains (e.g., language vs. visual-perceptual abilities).
While clinical significance may be supported by statistically significant differences on quantitative measures of functioning, statistical significance cannot be equated with clinical significance.
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Kurylo, M., Fleming, K. (2018). Clinical Significance. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_2022
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