Online Pain Education in Addition to Usual Care in Chronic Pain.

Universidade Cidade de Sao Paulo

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Musculoskeletal Pain; Chronic Pain

Treatments: Other: Pain neuroscience education; Other: Usual care

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05302180

11975019.0.0000.0106

Details and patient eligibility

About

The lack of pain specialists limits users' access to non-pharmacological therapeutic pain control strategies. In this context, digital health programs can reduce the inequity of access to interventions, contribute to the self-management of chronic musculoskeletal conditions, reduce the burden on primary care and can help to reorganize the flow of referral of individuals in the health care network. The aim of this study will be to analyze the implementation and health outcomes of three online pain neuroscience education strategies in individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain. This is a hybrid type III effectiveness-implementation randomized controlled trial. Individuals with ≥18 years old with chronic musculoskeletal pain will be recruited from primary health care in the city of Guarapuava/PR/Brazil and referred to the health care network for conventional physical therapy in addition to the online pain neuroscience education program (EducaDor). The EducaDor program will be delivered in 3 modalities: 1) synchronous online; 2) asynchronous videos; 3) Interactive e-book. The implementation outcomes evaluated will be: acceptability, appropriateness, feasibility, adoption, fidelity, penetration, sustainability and costs; and health outcomes will include: pain, functionality, quality of life, sleep, physical activity, self-efficacy, adverse effects, prognostic and risk groups. The evaluations will be done at baseline, after the end of the interventions and follow-up of 6 months.

Full description

Systematic reviews have demonstrated the efficacy of pain neuroscience education in the treatment of adult individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain in reducing pain, anxiety, and depression; and increased of knowledge about pain, functionality and physical performance. The literature demonstrates moderate quality of evidence of pain neuroscience education in addition to usual physical therapy intervention in short-term with a weighted mean difference of 1.3 points for pain and 3.94 points for disability. Previous systematic reviews also suggest that pain neuroscience education alongside to usual physical therapy care or exercise-based treatments can be considered cost-effective compared to usual care alone.

Despite the large evidence for treatment of chronic pain, generally these evidence-based strategies are inadequately applied in practice by public health providers, inadequately integrated into lifestyle behaviors by health users and featured in health policy and health service delivery at a disproportionate level with the burden of disease. Another point, is that most of this available evidence is derived largely from research of high-income economies and reflected in clinical practice guidelines and policies targeted towards high-income settings. So, strategies to translate this evidence into policy and practice in low- and middle-income settings remain sparse. Hence, implementation research to determine the most acceptable, effective and sustainable health strategies to bring the chronic pain clinical practice guidelines into policy and practice in low- and middle-income countries is urgently needed.

Thus, the implementation of an online pain neuroscience education service in the health care network of Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) articulated with primary health care could provide coordinated and consistent care to the needs of individuals with chronic pain, with appropriate reference to specialists. The purpose of this study is to conduct a hybrid type III effectiveness-implementation randomized controlled trial with the following objectives: (1) to assess the effects of three implementation strategies of an online pain neuroscience education service in the public health system of Guarapuava city, Parana, Brazil; (2) to compare the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the three implementation strategies of online pain education.

Enrollment: 249 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. individuals that report musculoskeletal pain in the last 3 months;
2. can read and write in Portuguese language;
3. have smartphone, tablet or computer with internet access.
4. Participants will be included in the study after agreeing and signing the Informed Consent Form (ICF).

Exclusion criteria

There will be no exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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249 participants in 3 patient groups

Synchronous online group

Experimental group

Description:

The synchronous online pain neuroscience education program (EducaDor program) will be held in groups at until 12 participants, at 10 weekly synchronous meetings on the Whereby® platform.The professional will conduct each synchronous meeting with dialogued exhibition class using multimedia material shared on the computer screen

Treatment:

Other: Usual care

Other: Pain neuroscience education

Asynchronous group

Experimental group

Description:

Participants allocated in the asynchronous group will receive the interactive e-book at the beginning of the program and ten videos (one per week) with the same topics of synchronous online EducaDor program sent on their smartphone devices and e-mail, in addition to usual care. Before receiving the materials, users will participate in an individual or group synchronous meeting of up to 12 participants on the Whereby® platform to receive a guidance for the use of interactive e-book and access to videos over the 10 weeks. The videos were previously developed and tested in another clinical trial.

Treatment:

Other: Usual care

Other: Pain neuroscience education

E-book group

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants allocated to this group will receive the interactive e-book of EducaDor program in their smartphone devices and e-mail, in addition to usual care. Before receiving the e-book, the users will also participate in an individual or group synchronous meeting of up to 12 participants on the Whereby® platform to receive a guidance for the use of interactive e-book over the 10 weeks.

Treatment:

Other: Usual care

Other: Pain neuroscience education