Response shift and oral health quality of life in dentine hypersensitivity

Response shift refers to the change in the meaning of self-evaluation of one's quality of life as a result of recalibration, reprioritization, or reconceptualization. These changes to the meaning of self-evaluation can threaten the validity of assessments of quality of life over time. This chapter draws on two studies that indicated that response shift occurs as part of adaptation and influences assessments of the effects of treatment for people with dentine hypersensitivity. Response shift can occur at any point during a condition, and the way people experience it varies in terms of timing, magnitude, direction, the mechanisms and catalysts involved, and the wider context of peoples' lives. Two methods of measuring and accounting for response shift in clinical trials were evaluated. The THEN TEST might be subject to bias whereas IDEALS (the assessment of how a person wants things to be "ideally") is a new but promising method.