Study to Test the Efficacy of Online Education to Increase Safe Use of Opioid Medication.

The goal of the study is to test the efficacy of the pain medication safety intervention for increasing safe management of prescription medication opioids. The study will use a randomized, controlled design that compares the intervention (painACTION medication safety lessons) to a waitlist control condition.

The hypotheses related to efficacy are that, as compared to the control group, people in the experimental group will demonstrate:

• Increased self-efficacy for how to safely manage medications (primary outcome)
• Increased behaviors associated with safely managing medication (secondary outcome)

Participants:

Investigators will recruit the first 148 respondents who meet the inclusion criteria and consent to be in the study.

Experimental Group. Participants will be given instructions via email to review eleven online lessons about opioid medication safety. Instructions will suggest that participants view one lesson per day for eleven consecutive days. Each educational lesson focuses on one or two aspects of medication safety, including how to safely store medication, and the importance of taking medication exactly as prescribed.

Control Group. The control group is a waitlist control. Participants will be given access to painACTION after the intervention period and follow up assessments are completed.

Randomization: Participants will be randomized by gender and age.

Procedure: Participants will be recruited with the help of the participating clinic. Staff members will let people know about the study by giving out informational fliers. The flier will direct people who are interested in participating in the study to an online screener. Those who screen in will automatically be lead to a consent form. Participants randomized to use painACTION will be sent the link to the online program and provided with a code that will serve as a Personal Identification Number (PIN) to access the program and return for subsequent sessions. The codes will also allow research staff to track program activity. The numbers are generated as participants agree to participate in the study and will begin with 0001 and continue to 0140 as the investigators add participants. The Research Coordinator will only provide assistance with the technical aspects of navigating the program. All assessments will be administered online. The battery will take no more than thirty minutes to complete. Several studies have determined that online assessments have many advantages over other modes of data collection (Webb et al., 1999; Yun, 2000). Online administration allows: (1) automation of the data collection process; (2) standardization of administration; (3) the use of personalized e-mail invitations at the precise assessment time points; (4) opportunities for participants to complete questionnaires on their own time and in the setting most comfortable to them; and (5) greater protection of confidentiality and conservation of resources because no written record exists. In addition, a number of studies have demonstrated that participants prefer computer-assisted self-interviews to traditional methods of data collection, and are more honest with computers (Johnston & Walton, 1995, Paperny et al., 2000). The increase in precision translates to greater power to detect real effect differences and higher confidence in the validity of the data. Information will not be saved if the browser is closed and the questionnaire has not been completed and submitted.

Assessments: Data will be collected from participants at baseline, immediately after the intervention, and one month post intervention.

Inclusion criteria

• Be willing and able to provide consent
• Have the ability to read and write English
• Diagnosis of non-cancer chronic pain
• Prescribed opioids and taking consistently for 3 months.
• Over 18 years old

Exclusion criteria

• Previously visited painACTION