Do pain management websites foster self-management support for people with persistent pain? A scoping review

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate if the contents of pain management websites include the current best practice self-management support strategies for people with persistent pain, are cultural tailored and to determine the website quality. Methods: Websites were searched from three major search engines (Google, Bing, and Yahoo). Websites providing information on self-management strategies and websites that were freely available to the public were included. The website contents were evaluated using a 14-item self-management support (SMS-14) checklist. Website quality was assessed using the Health On the Net code (HONcode) certification. Results: Of the twenty-seven websites evaluated, the websites scored a median of nine items (range 1–13) from the SMS-14 checklist. The websites LivePlanBe, ACI Pain Management Network and MyJointPain top-scored (13/14) from the SMS-14 checklist. One website (ACI Pain Management Network) provided culturally tailored information and HONcode certification was present in six websites. Conclusions: The review identified 27 contemporary pain management websites that could be used for self-management skills training. Practice Implications: Clinicians could refer people with persistent pain to top ranked websites - LivePlanBe, ACI Pain Management Network, and MyJointPain for enabling self-management skills, with the caveats that most websites lacked cultural tailoring, and have limited or no evidence of clinical efficacy.