Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Chronic pain remains highly prevalent. Current pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies have not adequately managed chronic pain which has contributed to disability and high healthcare costs.
With existing challenges in providing adequate pain care and access, we tested vAPA, a virtually delivered, self-management intervention using Auricular Point Acupressure APA by mobile app and virtual consultations telehealth. Our key purpose was to evaluate the feasibility of the vAPA in self-managing chronic pain in preparation for a future randomized controlled trial. We conducted a descriptive, qualitative study evaluating our 4-week vAPA intervention among 18 participants.
We used directed qualitative content analysis. Results and Conclusion. Participants perceived that vAPA was feasible acceptable, useable, practical, and beneficial. In addition, the following themes were gathered: better control of pain, less use of pain medications, self-management and motivation in pain, and expectations for pain relief.
Refinements were recommended for the app, content, and delivery to improve study interventions. Findings are relevant in moving forward to a future randomized controlled trial and for wider implementation in a pragmatic clinical trial.
Chronic pain is a major public health problem with increasing prevalence and is the leading cause of disability in the United States and worldwide [ 1 β 7 ]. Globally, 1 in 10 individuals suffer from chronic pain, leading to high healthcare needs, costs, and great societal burden [ 11 ].
