Spiritual Assessment in Chronic Pain Patients

Spiritual Assessment in Chronic Pain Patients: Construction and Validation of a Screening Tool in Health Care

The World Health Organization's (WHO) understanding of health(care) is incrementally incorporating the spiritual dimensions equivalent to the physical, psychological and social ones. Yet, it remains widely neglected in multi-modal, interprofessional chronic pain therapy. To support gaining access to chronic pain patients' spiritual needs and concerns within therapy, a screening tool has been constructed based on foregoing qualitative research and literature. The screening tool is to be validated with chronic pain patients in clinical settings.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Chronic Pain; Spirituality
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Questionnaire validation

Detailed Description

Addressing spiritual concerns and needs in chronic pain therapy is in line with the World Health Organization's (WHO) understanding of health(care) and would improve health care for this patient group. An applicable screening tool for chronic pain patients' spiritual concerns and needs must be empirically based. Based on preceding focus group interviews with patients and with health care professionals in various clinical settings and literature analysis, a screening tool has been constructed. This tool aims at supporting health care professionals as well as chronic pain patients in gaining access to spiritual concerns and needs for incorporation in multi-modal, interprofessional pain therapy. In this project the screening tools' psychometric properties will be tested with in five distinct clinical in- and out-patient settings.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 225
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Switzerland
  • Zürich, Switzerland, 8033
    • Arztpraxis Professor Sprott
  • Zürich, Switzerland, 8091
    • Universitätsspital Zürich, Institut für Anästhesiologie, Schmerzambulatorium
  • Zürich, Switzerland
    • Universitätsspital Zürich, Klinik für Konsiliarpsychiatrie und Psychosomatik
  • Bern
    • Langenthal, Bern, Switzerland, 4900
      • Klinik SGM Langenthal
  • Graubünden
    • Davos, Graubünden, Switzerland, 7272
      • Zürcher RehaZentrum Davos
  • Luzern
    • Nottwil, Luzern, Switzerland, 2607
      • Schweizer Paraplegiker Zentrum, Zentrum für Schmerzmedizin

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Sufficient command of German language as assessed by local study coordinator
• Confirmed medical and/or nursing diagnosis of chronic pain
• Suffering pain for ≥ 6 months
• Pain intensity was≥ 5 on a 11-point numeric Rating scale (NRS; 0 = no pain, 10 = worst pain imaginable) during the last episode of pain

Exclusion Criteria:

• Life threatening diagnosis (e.g. cancer) that would introduce end-of-life topics as primary aspect
• Cognitive disorders that would impair participation

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Other: Questionnaire validation; 22-items questionnaire "Spiritual Resources and Distress"	Other: Questionnaire validation; Participants will fill in the questionnaire "Spiritual Resources and Distress"plus additional questionnaires required for validation purposes. Three weeks later, a sub-sample will fill in the questionnaire one more time for consistency testing (test-retest)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Psychometric properties of "Spiritual Resources and Distress" questionnaire	Validity, internal consistency and stability of "Spiritual Resources and Distress" questionnaire	8 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Zurich
• Collaborators: Swiss National Science Foundation
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Michael Rufer, Prof., MD, University of Zurich

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Perrin J, Streeck N, Naef R, Rufer M, Peng-Keller S, Rettke H. Comparing perspectives: patients' and health care professionals' views on spiritual concerns and needs in chronic pain care - a qualitative study. BMC Health Serv Res. 2021 May 26;21(1):504. doi: 10.1186/s12913-021-06508-y.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 22, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 13, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): November 13, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 17, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 19, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): September 20, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 5, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 4, 2019
• Last Verified: December 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Chronic Pain
• Other Study ID Numbers: Spiritual Care & Chronic Pain

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No