Self-management helped with long-term pain, but only a little.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   The 20 studies included 3,557 adults, three in four of them women. All were run in Western Europe, Australia or the United States.

2. 02

   What they did

   The programmes taught skills such as solving problems and making decisions, with a typical course of six sessions over about 15 hours. The other groups had usual care, a waiting group or another programme.

3. 03

   What happened

   Right after treatment, pain and physical function were a little better, but not by an important amount. Activity did not differ then. Later on, people felt a little more sure they could do daily tasks, and pain, physical function and activity did not differ.

What the review found

1. No differenceGoals

   In two studies, self-management did not make people more active at the end than other groups.

   • Action: Set a specific goaltested
   • Action: Solve problems step by steptested
   • Rule: Practise with a groupused

   Pooled analysis of 2 studies · vs people who got usual care, waited or did another programme · they rated themselves · the authors rated their certainty low · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

2. HelpedMotivation

   In five studies, self-management made people a bit more sure about daily tasks a year on.

   • Action: Set a specific goaltested
   • Action: Solve problems step by steptested
   • Rule: Practise with a groupused

   Pooled analysis of 5 studies · vs people who got usual care, waited or did another programme · they rated themselves · the authors rated their certainty moderate · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

3. No differenceGoals

   In three studies, self-management did not make people more active than other groups, nine months on.

   • Action: Set a specific goaltested
   • Action: Solve problems step by steptested
   • Rule: Practise with a groupused

   Pooled analysis of 3 studies · vs people who got usual care, waited or did another programme · they rated themselves · the authors rated their certainty low · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

Source