WOMAC Meaningful Within-patient Change: Results From 3 Studies of Tanezumab in Patients With Moderate-to-severe Osteoarthritis of the Hip or Knee

Objective. To define meaningful within-patient change (MWPC) in the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC). Methods. Data were analyzed separately from 3 phase III clinical trials (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02697773, NCT02709486, NCT02528188) of tanezumab, a novel treatment intended for the relief of signs and symptoms of moderate-to-severe osteoarthritis (OA), administered subcutaneously every 8 weeks. Patients with moderate-to-severe OA of the hip or knee completed the WOMAC and patient global assessment of OA (PGA-OA) at regular timepoints. A repeated measures longitudinal model with change in WOMAC Pain, Physical Function, or Stiffness domain score as the outcome and change in PGA-OA as the anchor was used to establish MWPC for WOMAC domains. Results. In the 3 studies, there were 688, 844, and 2948 subjects available for analyses, respectively. Analysis showed that a linear relationship between changes in WOMAC domains and changes in PGA-OA was supported and justified. Moreover, the relationships between these changes were very similar for 2 trials and close for the third. The estimated MWPC for the 3 WOMAC domains were from 0.84–1.16 (0–10 numerical rating scale) and from 12.50–16.23%, depending on study and domain, that corresponded to a 1-category change on PGA-OA. For a 2-category change those values were from 1.68–2.31 and from 25.01–32.46%, respectively. Conclusion. These results establish MWPCs for WOMAC domains, at the individual patient level, for patients with moderate-to-severe OA of the hip or knee.