STUDY PROTOCOL article

Front. Digit. Health

Sec. Human Factors and Digital Health

Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1555733

This article is part of the Research TopicDigital Medicine in Psychiatry and Neurology - Chances and Challenges for Mobile Scalable Monitoring and InterventionView all 4 articles

Development, Implementation and Evaluation of a Digital Treatment for Adolescents with Chronic Pain: A Protocol for a multi-phase study

Provisionally accepted
Jordi MiróJordi Miró1*Ariadna SampietroAriadna Sampietro1Sonia MonterdeSonia Monterde1Pablo IngelmoPablo Ingelmo2Rikard K WicksellRikard K Wicksell3Carme NollaCarme Nolla4Mercedes AlonsoMercedes Alonso5Juan Jose LazaroJuan Jose Lazaro6ernesto martínezernesto martínez7Paloma RubioPaloma Rubio8Armando SanchezArmando Sanchez9Vanessa SanchezVanessa Sanchez10Francisco Reinoso-BarberoFrancisco Reinoso-Barbero11Rocio de la VegaRocio de la Vega12Francisco Reinoso-BarberoFrancisco Reinoso-Barbero13
  • 1University of Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain
  • 2McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • 3Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet (KI), Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 4Hospital Sant Pau i Santa Tecla, Tarragona, Spain
  • 5Hospital Infantil La Paz, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 6Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
  • 7Niño Jesús University Children's Hospital, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 8Research Institute Hospital 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Catalonia, Spain
  • 9Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain
  • 10Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
  • 11Hospital Universitario Son Espases, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
  • 12University of Malaga, Málaga, Andalusia, Spain
  • 13University Hospital La Paz, La Paz, Madrid, Spain

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Chronic pain in adolescents is an increasing public health concern with a significant physical, psychological, and social impact. This study aims to develop, implement, and evaluate DigiDOL-Ad, a digital psychosocial treatment for adolescents with chronic pain, supplemented by dedicated websites for their parents and teachers. This multicenter study will be conducted in four phases: (1) Development of the intervention framework and foundational planning; (2) Focus groups with adolescents with chronic pain, their parents, teachers, healthcare professionals and health authorities to identify specific needs and tailor the psychosocial treatment and related components; (3) Iterative usability testing of the digital treatment, using an a hermeneutical circle methodology to refine the design based on participant feedback; and (4) Evaluation of DigiDOL-Ad through a pre-treatment, post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up assessment. DigiDOL-Ad has the potential to improve the quality of life for adolescents with chronic pain. By leveraging digital health technologies, this innovative approach could establish a new benchmark for treating adolescents with chronic pain, emphasizing interdisciplinary and stakeholder-driven care.

Keywords: Clinical trial registration: clinicaltrials.gov, identifier: NCT06765200 adolescents, Chronic Pain, Digital Health, digital therapeutics, Mobile application, Pain Management

Received: 05 Jan 2025; Accepted: 13 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Miró, Sampietro, Monterde, Ingelmo, Wicksell, Nolla, Alonso, Lazaro, martínez, Rubio, Sanchez, Sanchez, Reinoso-Barbero, de la Vega and Reinoso-Barbero. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Jordi Miró, University of Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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