943 - A systematic review of technology-assisted behaviour change for the management of chronic health conditions including pain
1 The University Of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom; 2 The University Of Bath, Bath , United Kingdom; 3 The University Of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom; 4 Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, United Kingdom
Background and aims: Those involved in managing chronic health conditions such as pain have begun to consider new technologies to facilitate behaviour change. Despite progress, we do not know which methods have been successfully applied to the treatment of chronic conditions such as pain. As part of the SMART2 project (www.thesmartconsortium.org) we sought to review the evidence concerning approaches taken to achieve behaviour change in long term health conditions.
Methods: A systematic review was conducted using key terms including ‘technology’, ‘behaviour’, ‘change’, ‘therapy’, ‘health condition’. Given the focus on management of long term conditions only studies that reported actual behaviour change were selected for inclusion, which resulted in 45 relevant articles reporting 33 separate interventions.
Results: Interventions targeted a range of chronic health conditions e.g., diabetes, congestive heart disease, stroke, depression. No studies were found within the area of chronic pain management. Most interventions had some theoretical underpinning, predominantly derived from the cognitive-behavioural perspective. Technologies included mobile palmpilot devices delivering therapy content, internet therapy modules and home monitoring equipment. Professional involvement was reported in 73% of interventions. High levels of attrition emerged as a common limitation of the research.
Conclusions: Technology-based behaviour change interventions potentially provide individuals with more accessible and immediate therapy content. However, our review failed to find any studies that examined long-term behaviour change in a chronic pain sample. Future research should explore what attributes of human interaction facilitate traditional therapy, and how these features may be translated to a technological platform within a chronic pain context.
This review was supported by a grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK (EP/F001916).