Pain self‐management intervention supports successful attainment of self‐selected rehabilitation goals—secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial

Objectives (i) Describe patients' self‐selected activity‐related rehabilitation goals, and (ii) compare attainment of these rehabilitation goals among people with persistent tension‐type neck pain receiving a group‐based pain and stress self‐management intervention (PASS) or individual physiotherapy (IPT). Methods Before intervention and random allocation to PASS or IPT, 156 people (PASS n  = 77, IPT n  = 79), listed three self‐selected activity‐related rehabilitation goals by use of the Patient Goal Priority Questionnaire (PGPQ). For each activity goal, participants rated limitations in activity performance, self‐efficacy and fear of activity performance, readiness to change to improve performance, and expectations of future activity performance. At follow‐ups (10 weeks, 20 weeks, 1 year and 2 years after inclusion), participants also responded to a question on changes made to improve activity performance. Mann–Whitney U test was used to evaluate between‐group differences. Results There were between‐group differences in favour of PASS in the attainment of self‐selected rehabilitation goals with regard to activity limitations and satisfaction with activity performance at all follow‐ups. Conclusions PASS was more successful than IPT for the attainment of self‐selected rehabilitation goals, improvements in activity limitations and satisfaction with activity performance as measured by PGPQ. The PASS programme emphasized the importance of applying active pain‐ and stress‐coping techniques in personal ‘risk situations’ for pain flare‐ups, which appear to support people with persistent tension‐type neck pain to make changes in their lives to improve activity performance. Patient or Public Contribution Patient engagement in rehabilitation by self‐selected goals was investigated, but patients were not involved in the design or conduct of the study.