Our clinicians continue to study the effects of The Comfort Ability® program on children and adolescents with pediatric chronic pain conditions and their families. Some of our recent research projects include:
This study evaluated how mothers and fathers think about their child's pain. We learned that many mothers and fathers may think about their child's pain differently. After the program, mothers and fathers are more similar in how they think about their child's pain. Also, both mothers and fathers are more positive about their child's pain and recovery after the program.
In this small study, we explored the use of healthcare services before and after attending The Comfort Ability® program. We were interested to know if attending this program might change the type and frequency of health care services that are used by children with pain. We found that families who participated in this program had a 30 percent reduction in health care claims after the program. More research is needed to understand what factors specifically accounted for this change.
In this study we evaluated how patients and parents responded to The Comfort Ability® program. We were interested to know if patients were satisfied with the program and whether or not there were changes in how children and parents managed their thoughts, feelings and behaviors related to pain after participating in the program. We found that the vast majority of parents and kids (over 85 percent) were very satisfied with the program and that there were significant improvements in terms of functioning, mood and thoughts about pain even three months after the program ended.
For additional press and publications from the Comfort Ability® Program, please visit this link.