Do pain management websites foster self-management support for people with persistent pain? A scoping review

Hemakumar Devan; Meredith A Perry; Angelique van Hattem; Greg Thurlow; Sam Shepherd; Carol Muchemwa; Rebecca Grainger

doi:10.1016/j.pec.2019.04.009

Do pain management websites foster self-management support for people with persistent pain? A scoping review

Patient Educ Couns. 2019 Sep;102(9):1590-1601. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2019.04.009. Epub 2019 Apr 8.

Authors

Hemakumar Devan¹, Meredith A Perry², Angelique van Hattem³, Greg Thurlow³, Sam Shepherd³, Carol Muchemwa³, Rebecca Grainger⁴

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Health, Activity, and Rehabilitation Research (CHARR), School of Physiotherapy, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand. Electronic address: hemakumar.devan@otago.ac.nz.
² Centre for Health, Activity, and Rehabilitation Research (CHARR), School of Physiotherapy, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand.
³ School of Physiotherapy, University of Otago, New Zealand.
⁴ Department of Medicine, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand.

PMID: 30981410
DOI: 10.1016/j.pec.2019.04.009

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate if the contents of pain management websites include the current best practice self-management support strategies for people with persistent pain, are cultural tailored and to determine the website quality.

Methods: Websites were searched from three major search engines (Google, Bing, and Yahoo). Websites providing information on self-management strategies and websites that were freely available to the public were included. The website contents were evaluated using a 14-item self-management support (SMS-14) checklist. Website quality was assessed using the Health On the Net code (HONcode) certification.

Results: Of the twenty-seven websites evaluated, the websites scored a median of nine items (range 1-13) from the SMS-14 checklist. The websites LivePlanBe, ACI Pain Management Network and MyJointPain top-scored (13/14) from the SMS-14 checklist. One website (ACI Pain Management Network) provided culturally tailored information and HONcode certification was present in six websites.

Conclusions: The review identified 27 contemporary pain management websites that could be used for self-management skills training.

Practice implications: Clinicians could refer people with persistent pain to top ranked websites - LivePlanBe, ACI Pain Management Network, and MyJointPain for enabling self-management skills, with the caveats that most websites lacked cultural tailoring, and have limited or no evidence of clinical efficacy.

Keywords: Chronic pain; Internet; Online resources; Self-Efficacy; e-health.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Chronic Pain / therapy*
Humans
Internet*
Pain Management*
Patient Education as Topic*
Self-Management*