Strengthening Pain Resilience Through Mobile Technology: A Randomized Controlled Trial on Pain Intensity and
Hajar Haghshenas1,2, Maryam Shaygan3, Nilofar Pasyar3
1Department of Nursing, School of Nursing, Gerash University of Medical Sciences, Gerash, Iran.
Background:
Chronic pain is often accompanied by significant functional disability. Since people with chronic pain often experience a decrease in resilience -as a key psychological factor that significantly impacts pain intensity and disability level - the present study aimed to determine the effect of enhancing pain resilience through a smartphone-based application on pain intensity, and disability in this population.
Methods:
In the present randomized controlled trial, 108 patients with chronic pain were randomly assigned to three groups. Control group (A) received routine care, and control group (B) received short text-message-based educational content regarding chronic pain and its influencing factors. The intervention group patients also used the content of the enhancing resilience against chronic pain application for 8 weeks. The participants' outcomes including pain intensity and disability, were evaluated before, immediately after, and three months after the intervention. To examine the between-group differences in the mean outcome scores, ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used. To examine the within-group differences in the mean outcome scores, repeated-measures and Friedman tests were used.
Results:
The study results showed a significant difference in the mean pain intensity, and disability scores between the intervention group and control groups immediately and three months after the intervention (P=0.001). The mean pain intensity score and disability score were lower in the intervention group compared to the control groups. The mean pain intensity and disability scores showed significant decreases in the intervention group from before the intervention to immediately and three months after (P=0.001).
Conclusion:
The results confirmed the positive effects of the smartphone-based "Enhancing Resilience Against Chronic pain" application on pain intensity, and disability in chronic noncancer pain patients. Given mobile phone accessibility, researchers recommend that healthcare providers, especially nurses, use virtual education to reduce pain and disability in chronic pain patients.
Trial Registration:
Number: IRCT20210719051944N1, URL: https://www.irct.ir/trial/57624, date: 31/10/2021.