Factors influencing Pain Willingness and Engagement

Abstract

egeli na & macmillan p (2011) Journal of Nursing and Healthcare of Chronic Illness 3, 23–29 Factors influencing Pain Willingness and Engagement Aim.  To examine factors that may influence Pain Willingness and Pain Engagement, two factors of Pain Acceptance. Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome that frequently results in disability. Background.  Despite multidisciplinary treatment, the chronic pain associated with this condition is not likely to disappear completely. Therefore, adjustment to FM may require abandoning the struggle to control pain and continuing to engage in enjoyed activities with pain. Method.  One-hundred eighty-four women completed an online survey in 2006 so that pain acceptance, number of social and emotional problems, pain catastrophising, and average pain severity could be examined. Findings.  Result of our multivariate regression revealed that there were significant relationships with both Pain Willingness and Pain Engagement and the four aforementioned factors. However, results of separate multiple linear regressions indicated that only Pain Catastrophising and number of Emotional Problems made a unique contribution to prediction of Pain Engagement scores and only Pain Catastrophising and number of practical problems made a unique contribution to Pain Willingness scores. Relevance to clinical practice.  Results indicate that to help people adjust to FM, it may be more important to address emotional issues and pain catastrophising than to focus on pain severity.