Complementary and Integrative Health for Pain in the VA: A National Demonstration Project (NIH-VA-DOD Joint Initiative)

Design: The investigators are employing a quasi-experimental encouragement study design in which subjects are able to choose their own CIH therapies, but some are offered extra encouragements (nudges) to choose specific CIH therapies. Instead of being randomized to a CIH therapy, individuals will enter one of three study groups - Veterans Using Practitioner Delivered CIH Therapies Only, Veterans Using Self-Care CIH Therapies Only, or Veterans Using a Combination of Practitioner-Delivered and Self-Care CIH Therapies (Dual-Care) - based on what CIH therapies they used six months after they initiate any CIH therapy. Although accrual to study group is not random, some sites have strong business practices/nudges that lead to considerable variation in which CIH therapies patients use. The variation induced by these business practices/nudges provides a quasi-experimental natural experiment that can be assessed through an instrumental variables analytic approach. The purpose of using business practices as an instrument for accruing patients to treatment groups, similar to the use of randomization, is to reduce potential selection and confounding bias. The six-month treatment window will allow for patients to initiate one type of CIH therapy and add additional CIH therapies based on business practices/nudges at their site within the evaluation period. The CIH therapies that patients receive will be as they are delivered by the 18 VHA Whole Health flagship study sites and community care practices.

The APPROACH study was initially envisioned to examine primary and secondary outcomes for the above-named three study groups. Due to the study's pragmatic design and sampling approach, the sample size of the Veterans Using Self-Care CIH Therapies Only group did not meet the minimum threshold necessary to detect between-group differences of interest. It was therefore determined that study revisions would be necessary.

Sites: The study sites are the VA's 18 Whole Health Flagship sites: VA Boston Health Care System, VA New Jersey Health Care System, Erie VAMC, Beckley VAMC, W. G. (Bill) Hefner VAMC, Atlanta VAMC, Tampa VAMC, Tennessee Valley Health Care System, Aleda E. Lutz VAMC, Tomah VAMC, St. Louis VA Health Care System, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, South Texas Veterans Health Care System, Salt Lake City VAMC, VA Portland Health Care System, Palo Alto VAMC, Tucson VAMC, VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System).

Secondary Data from the VA Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation's Complementary and Integrative Health Therapy Patient Experience Survey: The APPROACH study is predominately conducting a secondary analysis of patient-reported data being collected by VA OPCC&CT's four timepoint survey (baseline and months 1, 3, 6). Almost all of the outcomes listed below are from that survey.