Optimizing Chronic Pain Management Through Patient Engagement With Quality of Life Measures: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The health-related quality of life report provides participants with an overall score on the SPADE cluster and scores on each of its five component scales. The recently released Federal Pain Research Strategy states that pain cannot be measured in isolation, but rather should be assessed in conjunction with other outcome measures in 'non-pain domains,' such as quality of life. It recognizes that pain may be affected by, and affect, such patient attributes as sleep, mood, cognition, function, and quality of life. Further, the report states that improvement in pain without concomitant improvement in other domains may not constitute a clinically meaningful outcome. This study primarily aims to assess the utility of a health-related quality of life report in improving quality of life, back pain intensity, and back-related disability in participants with chronic low back pain. Another aspect of the study will be to determine how the health-related quality of life report may impact the physician-patient interaction. This will be assessed using validated measures of physician interpersonal manner, empathy, and communication style, as well as end-of-trial survey data acquired from participants assigned to the experimental group. The survey will include an overall assessment of the report, as well as specific actions attributed to the report.