Clinical Importance	Pain Intensity	Function (Self Report)	Effect Size Cohen d (SMD)	GPE
Small (A little better)	WMD < 10% of the VAS scale	Neck Disability Index (NDI)	0.2 as small	little improvem ent
		MDC 5/50 for uncomplicated neck pain; up to 10/50 for radiculopathy;		MID
		Clinically important difference varies across studies from 5/50 to 19/50 [14]
		Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire (NPQ) unclear
		Pain Disability Index (PDI) unclear
Medium (Somewhat better)	10% ≤ WMD < 20% of the VAS scale	15% rule from Ottawa Panel – rheumatologists survey	≥ 0.5 as medium	moderate improvem ent
	neuropathic pain at least 30% pain reduction from baseline	WMD ≥ 10 NDI units
	no worse than mild pain remaining [15]
Large (A lot better)	WMD ≥ 20% of the VAS scale		≥ 0.8 as large	a lot of improvem ent
	neuropathic pain at least 50% reduction from baseline; 50 to 70% is a clinical success [15]
	Final pain intensity < 30/100mm or equivalent
	State: No worse than mild pain.

Key: WMD – weighted mean difference, VAS – visual analogue scale, NDI – neck disability index, GPE – global perceived effect