Partners for Pain & Wellbeing Equity: A Randomized Trial of Community Supported Complementary and Integrative Health Self-management for Back Pain

Inclusion Criteria:

• Provide a signed and dated informed consent form

• State willingness to comply with all study procedures outlined in the consent form

• Be 18 years of age or older

• Have self-reported chronic back pain (defined as pain in the low or mid back, orneck pain) which has lasted for 3 months or longer

• Have a score of 3 or higher on the self-reported Pain, Enjoyment of Life and GeneralActivity (PEG) scale (0 to 10)

• Be a member of one or more of the following NIH-designated health disparitypopulations: American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American,Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, Socioeconomically disadvantaged (annual household income less than $50,000)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Hospitalization for severe mental illness in past six months because the mindfulnessand behavioral mind-body practices (e.g., meditation, progressive muscle relaxation,etc.) in the experimental intervention may aggravate symptoms of severe mentalillness

• Active psychotic symptoms, suicidal ideation, or manic episodes in the past threemonths for the same reasons noted in #1

• Self-reported cancer with active treatment involving radiation or chemotherapy dueto the potential for complications of their back or neck pain and impact on healthoutcomes

• Dementia - Mini Mental State Exam score of 23 or lower for those with suspicion ofcognitive impairment due to safety risks (e.g., not being able to follow directionsfor safe physical exercise)

• Self-reported pregnancy due to the fact that back pain is often associated withpregnancy and differs from non-pregnancy related back pain and thus might havedifferent impacts on health outcomes

• Children under the age of 18