Providing an online program to help those living with persistent pain could remove barriers to accessing help, a University of Otago—?t?kou Whakaihu Waka-led study has found.
Persistent pain is a leading cause of disability worldwide. In Aotearoa New Zealand, it affects more than 20% of adults, with M?ori, people living in socioeconomically deprived areas, and those aged over 65 at highest risk. The reductions in health-related quality of life also cause a high personal and financial burden.
Lead author Professor Leigh Hale, of the School of Physiotherapy, says completing a multidisciplinary, pain management program offered by specialist pain services is an effective approach to support people living with persistent pain.
“However, specialist pain services in New Zealand are under-resourced, with all reporting long waiting lists—for one service this wait can be up to nine months. People also often have to overcome geographic barriers and transport costs.
“We also know M?ori experience stigma, systemic racism, and restricted access to health care, which leads to inequitable health outcomes,” she says.
To help those affected, researchers and clinicians from Wellington Regional Pain Service developed an online pain management program—iSelf-help—co-created with people with lived experience of persistent pain, and inclusive of M?ori cultural considerations.
The program consisted of two group video conferencing sessions each week for 12 weeks, one with a peer support person and one with a clinician, with access to resources on an app and website.
A study, published in the Journal of Pain, compared iSelf-help to a currently available in-person program and found it to be cheaper and more accessible, with similar overall satisfaction scores.
Professor Hale says if the program was adopted permanently, it could increase the range of equitable, accessible solutions for those with the condition. This will also be the first initiative to integrate lived experience expertise as part of mainstream pain management services.
“Given that persistent pain affects hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders, enabling greater reach for interventions that can be of benefit, is significant.”
“If both online and in-person programs could be offered, this would increase the range of equitable accessible solutions for people living with debilitating health conditions—people would be empowered by choice.”
More information:
Leigh Hale et al, A group-based, online-delivered pain management programme (iSelf-help) is not inferior to a group-based, in-person programme in reducing pain-related disability for people with persistent pain: A non-inferiority randomised, two-arm, parallel, open-label trial, The Journal of Pain (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2025.105447
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