Authors (including presenting author) :
LAM CS(1), OR YLD(1)(2), WOO KHA(1)(2), LEE SHE(3), NG SNM(4)
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Anaesthesiology and Operating Services, Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital and North District Hospital, (2) NTEC Pain Management Centre, (3) Wong Tai Sin District Health Centre, (4) CUHK Nethersole School of Nursing
Keyword 1: :
Social prescribing
Keyword 2: :
Labyrinth walking
Keyword 3: :
Chronic pain
Keyword 4: :
Mixed method
Keyword 6: :
Chinese adult
Introduction :
Social prescribing is a means for health-care workers to connect patients to a range of non-clinical services in the community to improve health and well-being (WHO Western Pacific, 2022, p.2). A holistic labyrinth walking program is proposed to connect chronic pain patients from hospital to the community. This study evaluated the social prescribing effect(s) on the Chinese chronic pain patients with a standard labyrinth walking program in hospital (4-weekly) and then in the community (4-weekly). Reference: WHO Western Pacific (2022) A toolkit on how to implement social prescribing.
Objectives :
1. To test social prescribing as a means to connect the hospital and the community 2. To test labyrinth walking as a holistic tool to connect the hospital and the community
Methodology :
A mixed method study – quantitative and qualitative data were drawn from patients’ self-report questionnaires and in-depth interviews before and after the program, and weekly diary and researcher’s field note during the 8-week program. Paired-sample T test was used to evaluate outcomes (including NRS, HADS, PCS, WHO-5 Well Being Scale, Adult Hope Scale, Loneliness Scale, 6-minute walk test) when qualitative data was analyzed using a content analysis approach.
Result & Outcome :
Sixteen chronic pain patients (9 male and 7 female) were recruited by convenient sampling from the NTEC Pain Management Centre (PMC) with an age ranged from 37 to 74 years old. Thirteen participants (81.3%) completed the program in both the hospital and the community, whereas 8 (61.5%) joined the District Health Centre (DHC) as members. Three participants did not attend the program in the community as scheduled due to personal, family or health reasons. There were no adverse events or concerns reported by the participants, facilitators, or staff from the NTEC PMC or DHC during the 8-week hospital-community program. Change in all outcomes were not statistically significant (P>0.05) with a small effect size (Cohen's d= ≤ 0.2) indicating a need for testing the program in a larger sample size in future study.
