Education programs for people living with chronic pain: a scoping review

Abstract

Abstract Objective The aim of this scoping review was to provide evidence for health practitioners to improve patient education practice for chronic pain management. Methods A scoping review was guided by Arksey and O'Malley's (2005)1 five-stage framework, investigated contemporary patient education programs (2007–2018) for chronic pain management in education content, formats of delivery, and tools used for evaluation. Content analysis and description were used for the outcome report. Results Seven quantitative studies were included. Education content consisted of General information, Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), Self-management, and Pain neurophysiology (PN). Education delivery formats varied from workbook to workbook, face-to-face, online, when given for a group or individual or in a combined way. In total, 19 tools were reported for the evaluation of the education programs. Conclusions There is a variety in the education content and the delivery formats. The majority of programs showed effectiveness in patients’ chronic pain management based on their selected evaluation tools. This review showed that patient education programs can be useful in chronic pain management. The effectiveness of patient education programs focuses on the improved patients’ physical function and quality of life rather than the cessation of pain only.