CAPS sub studies

My Pain Tracker (MPT)

My Pain Tracker (MPT) is a new electronic mHealth multi-dimensional pain assessment tool for children and young people with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The app has been developed in over 15 years of research, first adapted from a communication interview tool for children and young people with acute pain.

The app collects pain information on intensity, severity, location, emotion and other pain qualities such as interference. The aim of our current research is to explore the acceptability, usability and feasibility of MPT as a standalone ecological momentary assessment which can support remote data transfer from childrens own homes to research or clinical settings.

This research is necessary as the relapsing-remitting nature of pain in JIA is not effectively captured either in clinic or by the current pain assessment tools available. Another aspect of our research focuses on administrative and interpretative features of MPT. We are investigating how often children and young people should complete MPT remotely so that we have a better understanding of what ensures participants engage with measures sustainably as a self-management tool over long periods of time. Here, we are also exploring measurement reactivity to see whether children over-report or react to being asked about pain more or less frequently.

In other work, we are also currently exploring how healthcare professionals and researchers make decisions regarding overall pain severity when they are asked to interpret childrens multi-dimensional reports of pain through tools such as MPT.