A web‐based therapeutic patient education intervention for pain and sleep for women with fibromyalgia: A sequential exploratory mixed‐methods research protocol

Aims To evaluate cognitive and behavioural factors related to pain and poor sleep quality in women diagnosed with fibromyalgia and to develop and test the effects of a web‐based therapeutic education intervention on pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, chronic pain self‐efficacy, sleep quality, dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep and quality of life and health status related to fibromyalgia. Design The project will employ a sequential exploratory mixed methods research design. Methods For the qualitative phase, a theoretical sample living in the community will be recruited to participate in personal, semi‐structured interviews. For the quantitative phase, a sample of adult women with fibromyalgia will be recruited from secondary care centres and randomly allocated an intervention or a control group. The study protocol was approved in 2019. Discussion Fibromyalgia is the most common central sensitivity syndrome and one of the principal worldwide causes of chronic widespread pain among the adult population. Poor sleep quality is a highly prevalent and troublesome symptom for people with fibromyalgia. Psychosocial and behavioural factors have been shown to relate intimately with the symptom experiences of people with fibromyalgia; pain catastrophizing and dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep can perpetuate those and other fibromyalgia symptoms. Conclusion It is imperative to reflect people's actual symptom experiences to develop effective symptom management strategies. In the Internet era, this project's proposed web‐based therapeutic education intervention could offer women with fibromyalgia a new avenue for treatment as part of standard fibromyalgia management programs in primary and secondary healthcare services. Impact Pain and poor sleep quality are highly prevalent and troublesome symptoms for people with fibromyalgia. The web‐based therapeutic education intervention proposed in this project could provide women with fibromyalgia a new avenue for treatment in primary and secondary healthcare services. Protocol registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03686410. 目的 评估与被诊断患有纤维肌痛的妇女的疼痛和糟糕睡眠质量相关的认知和行为因素,开发和测试关于疼痛强度、疼痛灾难化、慢性疼痛自我效能感、睡眠质量以及与纤维肌痛有关的睡眠和生活质量及健康状况的功能失调性信念和态度的网上治疗教育干预。 设计 本项目将采用顺序探索性混合法研究设计。 方法 在定性阶段,将筛选一名生活在社区的理论样本,参与个人半结构式面试。在定量阶段,将从二级护理中心筛选一名患有纤维肌痛的成年妇女样本,并随机分配到干预组或对照组。研究方案于2019年获得批准。 讨论 纤维肌痛是最常见的中枢敏感性综合征,也是造成成人群体慢性广泛疼痛的世界性主要原因之一。纤维肌痛患者的一个普遍而棘手的症状是睡眠质量差。社会心理和行为因素已被证明与纤维肌痛患者的症状经历密切相关;疼痛灾难性和睡眠功能失调性信念和态度可能令这些症状和其他纤维肌痛症状