Investigating the long-term impact of pain communication
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the impact of pain communication over time in children and young people with chronic musculoskeletal pain
IRAS ID
355109
Contact name
Rebecca R Lee
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Little research has been conducted exploring how pain is communicated about between healthcare professionals, parents as well as children and young people who have chronic musculoskeletal pain. The purpose of this programme of research is to investigate the lasting influence and impact that pain communication can have over time on children and young people. Participants will include children/young people (aged 5-19), their parents and healthcare professionals. Participants will be recruited from 6 UK paediatric rheumatology outpatient centres and chronic pain services. Participants may also be recruited from the community. The research will comprise of two parallel phases.
Phase 1 will be a semi-structured interview study in which children, young people and parents will draw timelines of their clinical care and reflect upon their experiences and perspectives of pain communication across their timeline. This study will allow us to identify the key milestones in which pain communication has had its biggest impact and how on children and young people.
Phase 2 will be a longitudinal study. At baseline, we will administer questionnaires about a recent clinical consultation and capture data about several patient outcomes from children/young people and their parents. A subset of children and young people in Phase 2 will also be invited to audio or video record (depending on participant preference) triadic (between children/young people, parents and healthcare professionals) and/or dyadic (between healthcare professionals and adolescents) consultations. In this subset of participants, healthcare professionals will be asked to complete a questionnaire capturing data on their perspectives of pain communication during the consultation. At 1 months and 6 months follow-up, we will administer the same questionnaires to children/young people and parents. This study will allow us to characterise the relationship between pain communication and the impact of this pain communication on children/young people’s pain and other patient outcomes over time.
REC name
HSC REC A
REC reference
25/NI/0121
Date of REC Opinion
20 Aug 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion