A Digital Video and Text Messaging Intervention to Support People With Chronic Pain During Opioid Tapering: Content...

Area of Science:

• Digital health interventions
• Pain management
• Opioid tapering support

Background:

• Chronic pain patients find opioid tapering difficult, requiring additional support.
• Formative research suggests mobile health (mHealth) technology is a viable support method for opioid tapering, potentially enhancing self-efficacy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate and enhance the content of a mobile health (mHealth) intervention for opioid tapering prior to pilot testing.
• To incorporate feedback from both consumers and clinicians to improve intervention acceptability and effectiveness.

Main Methods:

• A 28-day mHealth intervention draft, including a video and 90 SMS text messages, was reviewed by 12 consumers and 12 clinicians.
• Participants rated content appropriateness, usefulness, and effectiveness using a 5-point Likert scale.
• Content was deemed acceptable if it met specific summed rating thresholds and underwent further revision based on qualitative feedback.

Main Results:

• Both consumers and clinicians found the video and text content highly appropriate and likely useful/effective (mean ratings generally >4.0).
• A significant majority of draft SMS texts met acceptability thresholds (77% by consumers, 82% by clinicians).
• The top 56 texts and the video script were refined based on feedback, ensuring suitability for the pilot intervention.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully evaluated and improved the content of an mHealth intervention for opioid tapering in chronic pain patients.
• The refined intervention, comprising a psychoeducational video and 56 SMS text messages, is deemed acceptable by target users and clinicians.
• This mHealth intervention is ready for pilot testing in future research to further assess its impact on opioid tapering.