Chronic pain is a challenge for public health. As pain alleviation is often limited with pharmacological or interventional treatments, non-pharmacological and self-care approaches are developed. Meanwhile active self-care takes motivation from patients. Though, the objective of this study was to measure the level of readiness to practice active self-care among chronic pain patients. A single-center quantitative cross-sectional postal survey was conducted among all chronic pain patients above 18 years old seeking care at the Pain Center of an academic hospital from June 2013 to March 2015. Socio-demographic data, pains’ characteristics, treatments already used and level of readiness to practice active self-care methods were investigated. Of the 1537 questionnaires sent, 639 (41.6%) patients were included Median duration of pain was 8.5 years (IQR 7.5). High disability related to pain was reported by 63.7%. Most patients had a high (44.1%) or moderate (24.6%) level of readiness to practice active self-care methods. Level of readiness was not associated with the duration or grading of pain. Multivariate analysis showed that a high level of readiness was associated with lower age (RRR=0.97, 95% CI 0.94-0.99, p=0.039), middle or advanced level of education (RRR 3.42, 95% CI 1.90-6.13, p<0.001), unemployed status due to medical conditions (RRR 2.92, 95% CI 1.30-6.56, p=0.009), use of dietary supplements (RRR 2.77, 95% CI 1.52-5.04, p=0.001) and neuropathic pain characteristics (RRR 1.80, 95% CI 1.40-3.12, p=0.036). Level of readiness was not lower for patients suffering from high disability or long-term chronic pain, suggesting that also severe patients could be motivated to practice active self-care.

Level of readiness of chronic pain patients to practice self-care