Dyadic Pain Management Program for Older Adults and Informal Caregivers With Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is a common health problem among older adults and their informal caregivers. Chronic pain has negative effects on physical and psychological health status and it is a strong predictor of poor quality of life. In this study, a dyadic face-to-face pain management program will be provided to older adults and informal caregivers to help the dyads equip with pain-related knowledge and pain coping skills. The effectiveness of the dyadic program will be assessed. Participants will be recruited follow snowball sampling and will be randomly allocated to experimental group and control group using 1: 1 radio. The dyadic pain management program will last four weeks, including group discussion, pain-related knowledge and physical exercises. Pain intensity, anxiety, depression, stress, pain self-efficacy and quality of life will be measured in baseline, post-treatment and at one-month follow. Acceptability and satisfaction to the program will be collected. This study will be held in Caritas District Elderly Centre-Yeun Long (Tin Chak Centre) and Caritas Cheng Shing Fung District Elderly Center (Shamshuipo) in Hong Kong. For sample size, no suitable standard deviation and effect size was found in previous similar study through the literature review, so this study will be a pilot RCT study with a total 60 dyads of sample size. 30 older adults and 30 informal caregivers will be in each group (experimental group and control group). The dyadic pain management program will be held in the community activity center at weekends and will involve three parts: demographic data, outcome measures (baseline, post-treatment and one-month follow-up measures) and pain education. Potential participants' eligibility will be confirmed by a questionnaire designed according to inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. An information sheet will be provided to the eligible dyads and informed consent will be signed on the scene. Experimental group will start pain management program when fi