Personalised care in patients with chronic pain disorders: educational implications from a population-based study

ABSTRACT

Background: Personalised care offers psychological benefits to patients with chronic pain disorders. However, it is unclear which patient groups are prioritised, and which ones may require additional educational support in dealing with the psychological impact of chronic pain.

Aim: To assess the relationship between having a chronic pain disorder and the likelihood of being offered a personalised care plan, and also identify underlying psychological vulnerabilities.

Method: Bootstrapping was performed on data from 3717 respondents to the 2014 Health Survey for England. Participants were predominantly female (55.4%) and had a chronic pain disorder: (a) mental illness (anxiety, depression), (b) arthritis, rheumatism, fibrositis, (c) back problems, slipped disc, neck, and (d) other unspecified rheumatic problems (bones, joints, muscles).

Results: Personalised care plans were more likely to be offered to patients with mental health disorders, and experiencing specific psychological issues around feelings of usefulness (Effect = 0.026, 95% CI = 0.001–0.051), decisiveness (Effect = 0.030, 95% CI = 0.008–0.057), and optimism about the future (Effect = −0.028, 95% CI = −0.046 to −0.012). By contrast, patients with arthritis, rheumatism, fibrositis, and other unspecified rheumatic problems (bones, joints, muscles), were less likely to be offered personalised care.

Conclusion: Patients with a rheumatic condition, or other problems of bones, joints, and muscles, might require additional educational support in dealing with the emotional and psychological impact of living with a chronic pain disorder. This should include referral to structured patient education programmes that help improve self-management skills for chronic pain disorders.

KEYWORDS:

• Chronic pain
• personalised care
• patient education

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the UK Data Service for providing the data set. We are also thankful to Liverpool John Moores University for supporting the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.