Nkhoma, K., Seymour, J. orcid.org/0000-0002-9384-2551 and Arthur, A. (2013) An educational intervention to reduce pain and improve pain management for Malawian people living with HIV/AIDS and their family carers: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials, 14. 216. ISSN 1745-6215
Abstract
Background: Many HIV/AIDS patients experience pain often due to advanced HIV/AIDS infection and side effects of treatment. In sub-Saharan Africa, pain management for people with HIV/AIDS is suboptimal. With survival extended as a direct consequence of improved access to antiretroviral therapy, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS related pain is increasing. As most care is provided at home, the management of pain requires patient and family involvement. Pain education is an important aspect in the management of pain in HIV/AIDS patients. Studies of the effectiveness of pain education interventions for people with HIV/AIDS have been conducted almost exclusively in western countries. Methods/design: A randomised controlled trial is being conducted at the HIV and palliative care clinics of two public hospitals in Malawi. To be eligible, patient participants must have a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS (stage III or IV). Carer participants must be the individual most involved in the patient’s unpaid care. Eligible participants are randomised to either: (1) a 30-minute face-to-face educational intervention covering pain assessment and management, augmented by a leaflet and follow-up telephone call at two weeks; or (2) usual care. Those allocated to the usual care group receive the educational intervention after follow-up assessments have been conducted (wait-list control group). The primary outcome is pain severity measured by the Brief Pain Inventory. Secondary outcomes are pain interference, patient knowledge of pain management, patient quality of life, carer knowledge of pain management, caregiver motivation and carer quality of life. Follow-up assessments are conducted eight weeks after randomisation by palliative care nurses blind to allocation. Discussion: This randomised controlled trial conducted in sub-Saharan Africa among people living with HIV/AIDS and their carers will assess whether a pain education intervention is effective in reducing pain and improving pain management, quality of life and carer motivation.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2013 Nkhoma et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | HIV/AIDS; Trial; Pain; Carers; Educational intervention; Palliative care |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Nursing and Midwifery (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 18 Apr 2016 09:13 |
Last Modified: | 18 Apr 2016 09:13 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1745-6215-14-216 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BioMed Central |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1186/1745-6215-14-216 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:98437 |