Table 1.

Priorities for research on social factors resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. Demographic and longitudinal studies on the social consequences of the pandemic for people with chronic pain.

a. Assess nature and cohesion of family and wider social support networks and emotional connectedness of people with chronic pain during physical distancing.

b. Assess how minority and marginalised groups with chronic pain are accessing pain support during the pandemic, identifying possible facilitators and barriers.

c. Assess different forms of social threat for people with chronic pain such as loneliness, experiences of injustice, victimization, and invalidation.

d. Examine the effects of social distancing measures in the workplace, and on job prospects after the COVID-19 pandemic for employees with chronic pain.

2. Fundamental research on biological, psychological, and/or social working mechanisms on the bidirectional relationship between social factors and pain.

a. Assess the immediate and long-term effects of physical distancing on relevant pain outcomes and pain management strategies.

b. Investigate whether pain-related stigma, discrimination, social isolation, or perceptions of injustice increase vulnerability to COVID-19 infection or affect risk-related behaviour.

c. Investigate the role of social learning in times of uncertainty and the effect on pain behaviour.

3. Clinical and fundamental research on digital social support for chronic pain.

a. Study the potential limitations (eg, less physical activity, lower quality of social relationships) and strengths (eg, lower threshold for engagement) of digital social support compared to face-to-face social support on pain outcomes.

b. Conduct theory-based studies on mediators that influence the effectiveness of online social support for chronic pain complaints.

4. Clinical research on the effectiveness of digital pain management interventions for chronic pain.

a. Clinical trials comparing the effectiveness of digital vs face-to-face interventions.

b. Research on the quality of social relationships, communication and trust between professionals delivering online interventions and chronic pain patients.

c. Identify barriers and facilitators for access to online treatments, especially for marginalized populations with chronic pain.

5. Research into possible individual resilience mechanisms (eg, increased social cohesions, revaluation of values and priorities, increased uptake of online pain management) buffering against the effects of the pandemic on chronic pain.

6. Systemic research on the effects of multilevel social determinants of health on chronic pain and policies to address them (eg, labour relations, income inequality, neighbourhood deprivation, racism, sexism, ageism, access to health care, etc.), to strengthen population resilience to the impact of heightened social threats on chronic pain.

a. Research into integrated methods of intervention or analysis (eg, dynamic systems modelling) across micro (ie, families, partnerships), meso (ie, community, city, organizations), and macro (ie, nations, civilizations) levels of the social system.