Effectiveness of an ambulatory interprofessional rehabilitation on occupational performance of persons with chronic pain. A registry-based longitudinal cohort study

ObjectiveTo examine to what extent the Bern Ambulatory Interprofessional Rehabilitation results in statistically significant and clinically meaningful changes in self-rated quality of and satisfaction with occupational performance, health-related quality of life, pain intensity, and burden of suffering of persons with chronic pain.DesignRegistry-based longitudinal cohort study.SettingDepartment of Rheumatology and Immunology at the Bern University Hospital, Switzerland.ParticipantsA total of 172 participants with chronic musculoskeletal pain.InterventionThe Bern Ambulatory Interprofessional Rehabilitation is a biopsychosocial intervention for persons with chronic pain.Main measuresCanadian Occupational Performance Measure, Pictorial Representation of Illness and Self Measure, European Quality of Life and Health Measure Visual Analogue Scale, and Visual Analogue Scale for pain intensity.ResultsChanges over time were statistically significant and clinically meaningful for quality of occupational performance (post-treatment <i>p</i> ≤ 0.001, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.62-2.31], <i>d</i> = 0.8; follow-up <i>p</i> ≤ 0.001, 95% CI [1.23-2.20], <i>d</i> = 0.70), satisfaction with occupational performance (post-treatment <i>p</i> ≤ 0.001, 95% CI [2.35-3.22], <i>d</i> = 0.95; follow-up <i>p</i> ≤ 0.001, 95% CI [1.95-3.14], <i>d</i> = 0.87), burden of suffering (post-treatment <i>p</i> ≤ 0.001, 95% CI [0.25 to -0.42], <i>d</i> = 0.61; follow-up <i>p</i> ≤ 0.001, 95% CI [0.20-0.40], <i>d</i> = 0.55), and health-related quality of life (post-treatment <i>p</i> ≤ 0.001, 95% CI [6.30-15.66], <i>d</i> = 0.43; follow-up <i>p</i> ≤ 0.001, 95% CI [3.08-15.28], <i>d</i> = 0.36). Changes for pain intensity were not statistically significant nor clinically meaningful (post-treatment <i>p</i> = 0.676, 95% CI [-3.85 to 5.45], <i>d</i> = 0.03; follow-up <i>p</i> = 0.243, 95% CI [-8.91 to 1.72], <i>d</i> = -0.09).ConclusionsThis study confirms the short- and mid-term effectiveness of the Bern Ambulatory Interprofessional Rehabilitation on occupational performance, burden of suffering, and health-related quality of life of persons with chronic pain.