Engagement in an mHealth-Guided Exercise Therapy Program Is Associated With Reductions in Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain.

Context: Chronic musculoskeletal pain costs the US $980 billion annually. Conservative treatments are the criterion standard, but scalable methods of treatment remain to be evaluated.

Objective: The aim of the study is to determine the effects of pain reduction and the perceived benefits of an mHealth exercise therapy program.

Design: This is a retrospective observational study on data from 3109 people (18-98, 49% female) with musculoskeletal pain in an mHealth exercise program. Presession pain was measured via 11-point numeric rating scale and nonstandardized single-item questions for work and quality of life; all were analyzed using mixed-effects models.

Results: By 11 sessions, there was an estimated a 2.09-point decrease in average numeric rating scale pain levels. There was an average percent increase of approximately 0.7 points for work life and quality of life ( tdf =6,632 = 12.06, P < 0.001). User engagement was high; 46% of participants were performing more than one session per day, and 88% were engaging within a week, indicating the feasibility of the deployment of an mHealth exercise app.

Conclusions: An mHealth exercise program was associated with significant decrease in pain and increased perceived benefits in a large population. These findings serve as preliminary findings of the feasibility for mHealth exercise interventions as scalable tools to improve chronic musculoskeletal pain outcomes.