Background & Aims
With a prevalence of 30%, chronic pain poses an important health problem in the pediatric population. Eight percent of children and adolescents are severely impaired by chronic pain. At present, the best available treatment for severe chronic pain is an intensive interdisciplinary pain treatment (IIPT) with medical and psychosocial treatment elements. Within this treatment, patients and their caregivers learn how to deal with and overcome chronic pain. Yet, a challenging factor remains the transition from the inpatient clinical setting to the home setting. An app that provides the most important strategies implemented during IIPT and a feedback function could be a promising tool for this transition period.
The aim of this project was to develop an app with feedback functions that helps to transfer the knowledge and skills learned during the IIPT into everyday life. To familiarize patients and parents with the app, it was introduced during the IIPT by healthcare professionals (HCP).
Methods
The app was co-designed in an iterative process. First, the target group was specified as youths (aged 8-17) with chronic pain who are treated in an inpatient setting as well as their caregivers. Then, workshops were carried out with 1) youths who were treated for chronic pain in a German hospital at the time and 2) caregivers. These workshops helped finding a design and format of the app appropriate for the target groups and to verify the comprehensibility of the evidence-based content. To ensure a good fit of the app’s content with existing inpatient therapy elements, discussions with HCPs took place. The app was then programmed, going through several steps of usability improvement and professional validation.
To investigate the implementation of the app, semi-structured interviews were conducted with HCP at the participating centers and evaluated using qualitative content analysis.
Results
The final app consists of two versions: one for patients and one for their caregivers. The workshops produced a city theme (“MyBrainCity”), representing the complexity of chronic pain as an “urban jungle”, with the app being a helping device to navigate through it. Each version consists of four areas: (1) pain education, (2) pain-related strategies (patient version), suggestions for support (parent version) (3) personal documentation and (4) feedback.
Content analysis of the interviews with HCPs provides results on the (1) introduction of the app to the target groups and on the (2) integration of the app into the therapeutic setting. Catalyzing factors to the implementation of the app in the inpatient setting were identified.
Conclusions
Results will provide information on the development of a new digital intervention in the field of pediatric chronic pain and insights into its integration into the inpatient setting.
References
Claus BB, Stahlschmidt L, Dunford E, Major J, Harbeck-Weber C, Bhandari RP et al. Intensive interdisciplinary pain treatment for children and adolescents with chronic non-cancer pain: A preregistered systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis. Pain 2022. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002636 .
Könning, A., Rosenthal, N., Brown, D., Stahlschmidt, L., & Wager, J. (2021). Severity of Chronic Pain in German Adolescent School Students: A Cross-sectional Study. The Clinical Journal of Pain, 37(2), 118–125.
Ledel Solem IK, Varsi C, Eide H, Kristjansdottir OB, Børøsund E, Schreurs KMG et al. A user-centered approach to an evidence-based electronic health pain management intervention for people with chronic pain: Design and development of EPIO. J Med Internet Res 2020; 22(1):e15889. doi: 10.2196/15889 .
Wager, J., Brown, D., Kupitz, A., Rosenthal, N., & Zernikow, B (2020). Prevalence and associated psychosocial and health factors of chronic pain in adolescents: Differences by sex and age. European Journal of Pain (London, England), 24(4), 761–772. Relevance for Patient Care
Presenting Author
Amelie Schmidt
Poster Authors
Topics
- Pain in Special Populations: Adolescents