Treating Pain to Reduce Disability Among Older Home Health Patients

This project will compare the effectiveness of usual care provided to older home health patients admitted with activity-limiting pain to usual care plus instruction by PTs in CBPSM techniques. The project also will examine differences in the effectiveness of the intervention among different race/ethnicity groups and individuals with different pain types, as well as the fidelity of intervention-group PTs to the CBPSM program. The specific aims of this CER study that will include sizeable numbers of Hispanics, non-Hispanic African Americans and non-Hispanic white patients ages 55 and older are: (1) to compare the effectiveness of usual care provided to older home health patients admitted with activity-limiting pain to usual care plus instruction by PTs in CBPSM techniques; and (2) to examine the heterogeneity of CBPSM treatment effects among patients with different pain conditions and minority group status.