Chronic Pain
Conditions
Brief summary
The COVID-19 pandemic is presenting one of the greatest threats to youth mental health seen in generations. Pain is one of the most common symptoms of extreme stress in youth. In 2020, the investigators created an online stepped-care program called the Power over Pain Portal. Stepped care is a promising way to improve access to CP care. Stepped care tailors care based on a person's symptom severity. Like a ladder, a person must start with one type of care then step up or step down to more or less intense care depending on need. The investigators also summarized all online pain management programs for youth to find the best resources to embed into the Portal. The investigators will pilot-test the Portal with youth to ensure it can be implemented effectively and will be clinically beneficial. The investigators will recruit 100 youth with CP to use the Portal for 2 months and see how they interact with the features and if it helps to improve their pain and mental health. The investigators will include a mixture of youth who represent different ages, sexes, genders, sexual orientations, races, dwellings, and school/employment status.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALPower over Pain Portal
Youth from different ages, sexes, gender, sexual orientations, races, dwelling and school/employment status will receive access to the portal for 2 months. The portal consists of self-assessment tools (bi-weekly check-ins to provide users with feedback on their mood, anxiety, pain, and sleep and guide decision making on choice of interventions), evidence-based virtual educational (pain neuroscience) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) pain interventions that are delivered in a stepped care manner based on participant needs/preference.
Sponsors
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
The Hospital for Sick Children
Study design
Observational model
OTHER
Time perspective
PROSPECTIVE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
12 Years to 18 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Experience chronic pain * Speak and read English * Access to Internet / Smartphone (or will be loaned study phone with data plan) * Intend to use the portal for 2 months
Exclusion criteria
* Youth self-reports: * Receiving tertiary care or are on waitlists for tertiary care paediatric chronic pain programs * Have moderate to severe cognitive impairment that may impact their ability to understand and use the Power over Pain Portal or complete self-reported outcomes * Have untreated major psychiatric illness (e.g., anorexia, psychosis) and/or active suicidality at the time of screening
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Acceptability | 8 weeks | This will be assessed using the Acceptability e-Scale administered at T2 and assessed during the post-implementation qualitative interview. The minimum value is 1 and the maximum value is 5. Higher scores on the Acceptability e-Scale indicate a better outcome. |
| Adoption (i.e.,rate of uptake of the Power over Pain Portal) | 8 weeks | Characterized via the user-level analytics of interactions with each feature. The benchmark will be 75% of users completing 3/4 portal assessment and accessing ≥ portal intervention. |
| Appropriateness (i.e., perceived fit and compatibility of the Power over Pain Portal to the needs of users) | 8 weeks | Assessed via the post-implementation qualitative interview. |
| Portal Feasibility as assessed by the extent to which the Power over Pain Portal can be used as planned | 8 weeks | Assessed using frequency counts and percentages of types/severity of problems encountered via monthly audit of technical support tickets |
| Fidelity | 8 weeks | Characterized by intervention use analytics. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Client outcomes | 8 weeks | Pain intensity as assessed by the 1-item PROMIS pediatric numeric rating scale v1.0 - Pain Intensity. This maximum score on the scale is 10 and the minimum score is 0, with higher scores indicating higher levels of pain experienced by the participant. This will be administered at T1 and T2 |
Countries
Canada
Contacts
Primary ContactJennifer N Stinson, RN, PhD
Backup ContactChitra Lalloo, PhD
Outcome results
None listed