Abstract
Background: The Engaging with older adults in the development of strategies for the self management of chronicpain (EOPIC) study aims to design and develop self management strategies to enable older adults to manage theirown pain. Involving older adults in research into chronic pain management will better enable the identificationand development of strategies that are more appropriate for their use, but how can perspectives really be utilisedto the best possible outcomes?
Method: Seven older adults were recruited through a local advertising campaign to take part. We also invitedparticipants from the local pain services, individuals who had been involved in earlier phase of the EOPIC study anda previous ESRC funded project. The group undertook library training and research skills training to facilitatesearching of the literature and identified sources of material. A grading tool was developed using perceivedessential criteria identified by the older adults and material was graded according to the criteria within this scale.
Results: Fifty-seven resources from over twenty-eight sources were identified. These materials were identified asbeing easily accessible, readable and relevant. Many of the web based materials were not always easy to find orreadily available so they were excluded by the participants. All but one were UK based. Forty-four items wereidentified as meeting the key criteria for inclusion in the study. This included five key categories as follows; books,internet, magazines, leaflets, CD’s/Tapes.
Conclusion: This project was able to identify a number of exemplars of self management material along with somegeneral rules regarding the categories identified. We must point out that the materials identified were not agespecific, were often locally developed and would need to be adapted to older adults with chronic pain. Forcopyright issues we have not included them in this paper. The key message is really related to the format ratherthan the content. However, the group acknowledge that these may vary according to the requirements of eachindividual older adult and therefore recommend the development of a leaflet to help others in their search forresources. This leaflet has been developed as part of Phase IV of the EOPIC study.
Method: Seven older adults were recruited through a local advertising campaign to take part. We also invitedparticipants from the local pain services, individuals who had been involved in earlier phase of the EOPIC study anda previous ESRC funded project. The group undertook library training and research skills training to facilitatesearching of the literature and identified sources of material. A grading tool was developed using perceivedessential criteria identified by the older adults and material was graded according to the criteria within this scale.
Results: Fifty-seven resources from over twenty-eight sources were identified. These materials were identified asbeing easily accessible, readable and relevant. Many of the web based materials were not always easy to find orreadily available so they were excluded by the participants. All but one were UK based. Forty-four items wereidentified as meeting the key criteria for inclusion in the study. This included five key categories as follows; books,internet, magazines, leaflets, CD’s/Tapes.
Conclusion: This project was able to identify a number of exemplars of self management material along with somegeneral rules regarding the categories identified. We must point out that the materials identified were not agespecific, were often locally developed and would need to be adapted to older adults with chronic pain. Forcopyright issues we have not included them in this paper. The key message is really related to the format ratherthan the content. However, the group acknowledge that these may vary according to the requirements of eachindividual older adult and therefore recommend the development of a leaflet to help others in their search forresources. This leaflet has been developed as part of Phase IV of the EOPIC study.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | - |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | BMC Geriatrics |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 86 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |