An Evaluation of the Flippin' Pain Seminar Series: a Chronic Pain Education Campaign

Chronic pain is defined as pain that continues for more than twelve weeks despite treatment. Chronic pain can be highly debilitating and have a devastating impact on an individual's mental and physical health and social aspects of their life. Poor understanding of chronic pain is widespread and can greatly reduce a) an individual's ability to manage their condition and b) the clinician's ability to treat the condition successfully. Educational interventions are therefore recommended. Flippin' Pain is a public health campaign that aims to improve understanding of chronic pain.

In February/March 2022, as part of the Flippin' Pain campaign, the Scottish government and NHS contracted Connect Health (TM) to deliver a series of 3 seminars in Scotland focused on pain science education. It was part of the Scottish Government 'Waiting Well' initiative and specifically targeted people on waiting lists for pain and musculoskeletal services in Scotland, although non-NHS individuals could also join including health professionals. Everyone who attended the seminars was asked if they would be happy to be contacted by the organisers as part of an evaluation of this event series.

Evaluation questionnaires were completed by 442 participants. This study will therefore be a secondary data analysis of this anonymous questionnaire data set to a). examine the impact of the seminars on attendees' beliefs and perceptions of chronic pain focusing on views towards medications, surgery, physical activity, and scans, and b). examine attendees' experience of the seminar events themselves.

The quantitative data collected from the questionnaires will be analysed using descriptive statistics. The qualitative free-text data collected from the questionnaires will be analysed using thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke's Framework.