Pain patterns and their association with psychological measures among people accessing an online pain management program.

AIM

This study aimed to explore the association between the distribution of pain sites and psychosocial measures at baseline of patients enrolled in an online MPMP.

PATIENTS

This study analyzed baseline data from adults ( = 2002) enrolled in the 'Reboot Online' pain program.

METHODS

Participants completed measures of Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ), Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK), Pain Disability Index (PDI), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K-10). Pain was categorized by the number of body regions affected: 1, 2, 3, >3. One-way ANOVA tests examined psychosocial measure differences across these groups.

RESULTS

The majority of participants had multisite pain, with multisite pain showing significantly worse psychosocial outcome measures ( < .05) compared to those with a single pain site, except for kinesiophobia, which was consistently high across groups.

CONCLUSION

Most online participants reported multisite pain, with multisite pain associated with poorer baseline psychosocial outcome measures, excluding kinesiophobia. The pattern of pain should be considered when developing and implementing online programs.