A Community Health Worker-Led Program for Chronic Pain and Loneliness in Older Adults

University of Michigan

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Chronic Pain

Treatments: Behavioral: Strengthening COnnections to Overcome Pain (SCOOP)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT06671925

P30AG022845 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

HUM00261437

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to test a new community health worker-delivered program (Strengthening COnnections to Overcome Pain, or SCOOP) that teaches strategies for managing chronic pain and loneliness to older adults living in rural areas. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Does participating in SCOOP result in less pain interference with daily life?
2. Does participating in SCOOP result in decreased loneliness?
3. What is the level of participant engagement in SCOOP? Researchers will compare people who have participated in SCOOP with people who have not participated in SCOOP to see if SCOOP is helpful in decreasing pain interference and loneliness.

Participants will:

1. Watch brief videos teaching strategies to manage pain and boost social connections.
2. Engage in up to 7 weekly coaching sessions with a community health worker.
3. Complete two telephone interviews about health, mental health, and functioning: one at baseline, and one 2 months later.

Enrollment: 80 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 60+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age >= 60 years;
• Have a mobile or landline phone;
• Self-reported chronic musculoskeletal pain (pain in muscles or joints for >= 3 months, >=4 (0-10 scale) average pain level over last week, >=1 day/previous 30 when pain made it difficult to do usual activities);
• Self-reported loneliness (Feeling lonely "some of the time" or more often);
• Able to converse comfortably in English.

Exclusion criteria

• Serious acute illness or hospitalization in the last month;
• Planned major surgery in the next three months that would interfere with program participation (e.g., knee or hip replacement);
• Severe cognitive impairment or other severe physical or psychiatric disorder judged by study team to pose a significant barrier to participation.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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80 participants in 2 patient groups

SCOOP Intervention Group

Experimental group

Description:

SCOOP is a 7-week intervention, delivered primarily over the telephone by community health workers, to support chronic pain self-management and social connectedness.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Strengthening COnnections to Overcome Pain (SCOOP)

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

Control group participants receive usual care between the baseline and 8-week follow-up survey. After completing the follow-up survey, control participants will be invited to take part in an educational workshop about pain and loneliness and will receive all intervention materials.