Web-based Support to Manage Arthritis Pain

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): One of every five adults in the United States (46.4 million people) is affected by arthritis. Increasing the number of days individuals are free of arthritis pain is one of the Healthy People 2010 objectives. Although t here are a variety of medical treatments and medications available, self-management is a critical component in helping arthritis sufferers learn how to identify, avoid, and help manage their pain. Unfortunately, clinicians face significant time pressure, l eaving little time for desired patient-provider education and collaboration. This is an important omission as tailored advice (e.g., exercise to reduce pain) from health providers could enable behavior change and improve outcomes. Therefore, widely accessi ble and tailored interventions that address motivational issues are needed to facilitate self-management education among arthritis patients. Because of its reach across demographic groups, the Internet is an excellent vehicle for offering a self-management program to arthritis sufferers. We propose to develop an interactive, pain self-management program for adults who suffer from pain associated with the two most common types of arthritis, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. This on-line health interve ntion, Pain Action: Arthritis, will provide clinically reliable information about diagnosis, treatment, and management of arthritis, written for consumers in a clear and engaging manner. Moreover, this website will be designed to complement and connect to our other SBIR-supported pain websites (chronic back pain, migraine pain, neuropathic pain) to be a more comprehensive resource for those seeking pain management assistance. Pain Action: Arthritis will be course-based and include motivational, tailored fee dback, and self-management recommendations, as well as unique personal tracking and social networking features. Our review of available arthritis websites suggests that no site currently offers this combination of empirically derived self-management featur es and thus will represent a significant advance in arthritis care. The content and intervention model of this on-line health intervention will be developed through consultation with arthritis experts and people with arthritis pain, concept mapping to dete rmine key domains of information, and a pilot test of a demonstration program of one lesson about arthritis pain with people who experience arthritis pain. We will also seek feedback from arthritis experts on the feasibility of the Phase I concept through a review of the demonstration program. One of every five adults in the United States (46.4 million people) is currently affected by arthritis and this number is expected to continue to grow to 67 million over the next twenty years. The global initiative, T he Decade of Bone and Joint Disease, was begun in recognition of the growing personal, social, and economic costs of arthritis to global society. The proposed project will employ consultation with people with arthritis pain as well as experts from diverse disciplines in this area to develop content for inclusion in a course-based on-line health intervention. This on-line interactive resource for health consumers will include motivational, tailored feedback, self-management recommendations, unique personal t racking tools, and social networking features.