An Ecological Monitoring and Management App (EMMA) for Older Adults With Chronic Pain: Protocol for a Design and Feasibility Study

Abstract

Background Chronic pain is a complex problem for many older adults that affects both physical functioning and psychological well-being. Mobile health (mHealth) technologies have shown promise in supporting older persons in managing chronic conditions. Cognitive behavior therapy is recommended for older people with chronic pain. However, web-based treatment programs for chronic pain are not aimed at the needs of older people and offer standard therapies without providing tailored treatment for this population. Objective To address this problem, we aim to develop a psychological web-based intervention for ecological monitoring of daily life experiences with chronic pain called EMMA to support self-management of chronic pain in older adults. Methods The key clinical and engagement features of the intervention were established through the integration of evidence-based material from cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of chronic pain in older adults. The development process uses a co-design approach and actively involves end-users in the design process by incorporating feedback from focus groups with older adults in order to inform a user-centered intervention design. For the co-design process, we will include 10 older adults with chronic pain, who will discuss the requirements for the app in workshops in order to ensure suitability of the app for older adults with chronic pain. In order to test the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention, we will include a sample of 30 older adults with chronic pain who will test all features of the intervention for a period of 8 consecutive weeks. After the trial period, validated instruments will be used to assess usability and acceptability, as well as influence on pain levels and associated physical and psychological symptoms. Participants will be invited to take part in a semistructured telephone interviews after the trial period to explore their experiences using the app. Results Digitalization of the pain diary and psychotherapeutic content has started. Recruitment of participants for the co-design workshops will start as soon as we have a functioning prototype of the electronic pain diary and EMMA intervention, which is expected to be in September 2021. The feasibility study will start as soon as the co-design process is finished and required changes have been implemented into the pain diary and the EMMA intervention. We expect to start the feasibility study early in 2022. Conclusions Required changes to assure usability and acceptability will be directly implemented in the app. EMMA brings together a strong body of evidence using cognitive behavioral and self-management theory with contemporary mHealth principles, allowing for a cost-effective intervention that can be used to target chronic pain anywhere and anytime by older adults. Given the ubiquity of mHealth interventions for chronic conditions, the results of this stud...

Interactions between Self-Reported Pain Intensity and Affects in Daily Life: A Pilot Study Comparing Individuals with Chronic Pain with Primary and Secondary Pain Disorders

“…Ecological momentary assessment techniques (EMA) are a well validated method for investigating individuals' real-time experiences as they occur in their natural environment and situations over time, reducing memory bias [15]. It marked a notable advance in the measurement of the individuals' everyday-pain-experience by providing data largely inaccessible to standard laboratory protocols as well as to characterize complex within-person processes over time [15][16][17]. EMA can be implemented to assess self-reports of pain in daily life with the help of pain diaries in digital or paper form [13,17].…”

“…It marked a notable advance in the measurement of the individuals' everyday-pain-experience by providing data largely inaccessible to standard laboratory protocols as well as to characterize complex within-person processes over time [15][16][17]. EMA can be implemented to assess self-reports of pain in daily life with the help of pain diaries in digital or paper form [13,17]. EMA has been used very infrequently to construct outcome measures in chronic pain intervention research [18], which is surprising in the light of the potential of EMA to provide ecologically valid estimates of treatment effects.…”