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Deborah Antcliff

Award title:  NIHR SPCR post-doctoral award

Project Title:  Translating resources for activity pacing to primary care to support the management of chronic pain

Brief Summary: 

Patients with chronic pain (including chronic back pain, fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis) commonly present to primary care for pain management. Activity pacing is advised to address pain-related behaviours: avoidance, excessive persistence and overdoing-underdoing cycling. Despite anecdotal support from patients and healthcare professionals, research regarding the effectiveness of activity pacing is unclear, and hindered by the absence of a validated activity pacing measure and standardised intervention. The aim of this study is to test the validity, reliability and responsiveness of an Activity Pacing Questionnaire (APQ) and develop a short-form APQ (APQ-SF) with fewer items to reduce time-burden; and to develop an activity pacing intervention for primary care. A cross-sectional questionnaire study will be used to test the APQ and develop the APQ-SF (target sample size n=300 patients with chronic pain). The activity pacing intervention for primary care will be developed using sequential stakeholder engagement and co-design workshops with ≤20 primary care healthcare professionals/practice managers/commissioners, third party/charity representatives and patient and public representatives. The activity pacing measures and activity pacing intervention will be used in a future feasibility and pilot randomised controlled trial to explore the effects of activity pacing on patients’ symptoms. 

Start date:  01.11.2022

End date:  31.10.2024