Interactive Sections Of An Internet-Based Intervention Increase Patient Empowerment: A Study With Chronic Back Pain Patients

Study Overview
=================
Brief Summary
-----------------
The aim of the study is to study how to improve patients' management of chronic back pain, particularly their management of prescription medication, through increasing health literacy and patient empowerment through an internet based intervention. We do this by designing both patient education materials and physician communication strategies to increase literacy and volitional components of patients. We will test two conditions using a website called Oneself: one providing only information (literacy-only control) and a second providing relational communications designed to increase both literacy and volitional empowerment. To test the self-management enhancing effects of empowerment and health literacy, we will conduct a longitudinal experiment with 51 chronich back pain patients over two months. This span of time is the minimum necessary to achieve a systematic change in self-management and literacy skills, increasing also the range of possible decisions to be made and actions to be real-ized by the patients.

Official Title
-----------------
INTERACTIVE SECTIONS OF AN INTERNET-BASED INTERVENTION INCREASE PATIENT EMPOWERMENT: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED STUDY WITH CHRONIC BACK PAIN PATIENTS

Conditions
-----------------
Group 1 (Control): Access to a Static Version of the Website Containing Only Static Features (i.e. Library, First Aid, and FAQ), Group2 (Intervention) Access to an Interactive Version of the Website Containing Both Static and Interactive Features

Intervention / Treatment
-----------------
* Other: Internet-based


Participation Criteria
=================
Eligibility Criteria
-----------------
Inclusion Criteria: aged > 18 years, having suffered from back pain for at least 3 months, no concurrent involvement in other studies. Exclusion Criteria: No access/limited access to computer and internet concurrent diseases

Ages Eligible for Study
-----------------
Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
-----------------
All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
-----------------
No

Study Plan
=================
How is the study designed?
-----------------

Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| group 1<br>No intervention | |
| Group 2<br>Intervention with interactive website | Other: Internet-based<br> <br> |

What is the study measuring?
-----------------
Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Empowerment level (psychological measure) | Empowerment is a pychological outcome measure. Patient empowerment is defined as a complex construct that includes different individual competencies and skills. Empowerment can be considered a multilevel and multidimensional construct closely linked to self-determination and self-efficacy. Empowerment is measured the with the Psychological Empowerment Scale According to the scale, empowerment is a multidimensional concept composed of four cognitive dimensions (or task assessments): impact (or the degree to which behavior is seen as making a difference), competence (or the degree to which a person can perform task activities skillfully), meaningfulness (or the individual's intrinsic caring about a given task), and choice (or whether a person's behavior is perceived as self-determined). | 8 weeks | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Medication misuse Physical exercise Pain burden | Medication misuse is measured with the Prescription Medication Use and Perception of Risk Instrument. The scale is scored as a continuous measure to provide greater sensitivity ranging from 0 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree) with higher scores indicating greater level of medication misuse. Physical exercise in leisure time is measured with the respective sub-dimensions from the Short Questionnaire to Assess Health-Enhancing Physical Activity and it gives the amount of time spent in physical exercise in hours/week Pain burden is measured with six items from the Chronic Pain Grading Scale that gives two measures related with pain: pain disability perception and pain intensity perception | 8 weeks |