Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Jul 7, 2022
Date Accepted: Dec 14, 2022
mHealth intervention for improving pain, quality of life, and functional disability in subjects with chronic pain: A systematic review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Chronic pain (CP), is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, and represents a significant burden on individual, social and economic aspects. Potential tools, such as mHealth systems, are emerging to the self-management of subjects with CP.
Objective:
A systematic review was conducted to analyze the effects of mHealth interventions for the CP management, based on pain intensity, quality of life, and functionality or disability assessment, compared to conventional treatment or non-intervention.
Methods:
The PRISMA guideline was followed to conduct a systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCT), published in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and PEDro databases up to March 2022. The eligibility criteria were (1) RCT in (2) adults (≥18) with CP, (3) intervened with mHealth systems based on mobile applications for monitoring pain and health-related outcomes, for pain and behavioral self-management, and for performing therapeutic approaches, (4) compared with conventional treatments (physical, occupational, and psychological therapies, medical usual care, and education) or non-intervention, (5) reporting pain intensity, quality of life, and functionality or disability. The methodological quality and the risk of bias were assessed by the Checklist for Measuring Quality, the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Levels of Evidence, and the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool 2.0.
Results:
Twenty-two RCT, involving 2,641 subjects with different CP conditions, were selected. A total of 23 mHealth systems were used to conduct a variety of CP self-management strategies, among which monitoring pain and symptoms and home-based exercise programs were the most used. Beneficial effects of the mHealth interventions in reducing pain intensity and disability, as well as improving functionality and quality of life, prompts to these systems an alternative to self-manage subjects with CP.
Conclusions:
mHealth systems seem to be an alternative to improve pain-related outcomes and quality of life of subjects with CP. These interventions could be considered as part of multimodal strategies for the CP self-management. Furthermore, high quality studies are needed to consolidate the evidence and recommendations of the use of mHealth systems for the CP management. Clinical Trial: ID PROSPERO: CRD42022315808
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