Living well with chronic pain: a 12-month randomized controlled trial revealing impact from the digital pain self-management program EPIO.

INTRODUCTION

Chronic pain affects a wide range of physical and psychological aspects of life for those impacted. Psychosocial treatment approaches may be of support, but outreach is still limited.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the efficacy of EPIO, an evidence-informed, user-centered digital self-management intervention for people with chronic pain, in a 12-month randomized controlled trial.

METHODS

People living with chronic pain (N = 266) were randomized to the EPIO intervention (n = 132) or a usual-care control group (n = 134). The intervention was delivered in a simple blended care model, and outcome measures collected at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. Generalized linear models for repeated measures were fitted to compare groups over time.

RESULTS

Participants were primarily female (81%), median age 49 years (range 22-78), with heterogeneous pain conditions, and had lived with pain >5 years (77.6%). A mixed linear model with all timepoints included revealed no statistically significant group differences for the primary outcome of pain interference. Significant psychological benefits in favor of the intervention group were however detected for depression ( = 0.022), self-regulatory fatigue ( = 0.024), vitality ( = 0.016), and mental health ( = 0.047). Baseline to 12-month changes showed additional favorable effects for anxiety (between-group mean differences [MDs] = 0.79, = 0.047), depression (MD = 1.08, = 0.004), self-regulatory fatigue (MD = 2.42, = 0.021), pain catastrophizing (MD = 2.62, = 0.009), and health-related quality of life.

CONCLUSIONS

The EPIO program aims to improve outreach of evidence-based pain self-management interventions. Findings demonstrate how using EPIO can lead to sustainable psychological change, enhancing mental health and health-related quality of life for people suffering from pain, providing a chance to live well the pain.