Problem Statement: The responsiveness and minimal clinically important difference (MCID) of the instrument in patients with cervical cancer in Ethiopia has not been evaluated. This study aimed to evaluate the validity, reliability, responsiveness, MCID, and minimal detectable change (MDC) among patients with cervical cancer patients in Ethiopia.

Description: A longitudinal study was conducted from March 2022 to July 2023 among 422 patients with cervical cancer. Test re-test reliability of EQ-5D-5L dimensions by Gwet’s AC2 while the index and EQ-VAS scores were calculated by intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC). Convergent validity with the EORTC QLQ-C30 was estimated using the Spearman correlation coefficient. Kruskal Wallis test was used to assess its discriminate ability of varied levels of patient health status among patient subgroups. The anchor-based, distribution-based, and instrument-based methods were used to calculate the MCID estimates. The MCID estimates to MDC ratios were computed at the individual and group levels at a 95% CI. All statistical analysis was performed using R software.

Lessons Learned: Three hundred seventy-one patients with cervical cancer had completed the survey at baseline and follow-up with a median age of 50 (41, 56) years. The index value and EQ-VAS scores of EQ-5D-5L improved by 0.04 and 7.0 post-treatment compared with baseline respectively. The Gwet’s AC2 ranged from 0.73 to 0.97 for EQ-5D-5L dimensions while the ICC for index value and EQ-VAS were 0.71 and 0.79. The effect size ranged between -0.12 to 0.60 for the index value and -0.12 to 1.16 for the EQ-VAS scores. Moreover, the average (range) MCID value of the EQ-5D index score was 0.10-0.15.

Stakeholder Perspective: The EQ-5D-5L instrument was able to detect improvements and deteriorations in health and could discriminate between patients with different levels of health. The MCIDs estimated could be used at group-level health assessment however, health changes at the individual level needed to be considered in future research.