P05.41. Development and evaluation of group medical visits for medically underserved women with chronic pelvic pain

Curriculum for ten monthly g roup visits of Centerin- gIMPPACT (Centering and Integrative Medicine for chronic Pelvic PAin Comprehensive Treatment) included mind-body approaches to managing CPP. A pilot study was conducted among patients with CPP at a safety net hospital. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected at baseline and three follow-up time points to assess feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary data on efficacy.

CenteringIMPPACT particip ants (n=12) were on aver- age 42 years of age; 58% were African American; 42% had attended some college; and 83% had household incomes of less than $35,000; 42% reported being in fair or poor health. From baseline to 3-month follow-up, average number of days that women reported limitations of usual activities decreased from 24 to 15. Health- related quality of life improved slightly; average life interference due to CPP decreased from 2.64 to 2.43. Mental health did not improve: scores on the Patient Health Questionnaire PHQ-9 for Depression increased from 11.25 to 12.43. Based on qualitative data, partici- pants experienced healthcare empowerment through learning to advocate for themselves and increased sup- port and hope from the groups.

Preliminary data from this study indicates some improvements in functional activities and health-related quality of life among medically underserved women with CPP. Group medical visits are a viable model of comprehensive care for CPP in safety net healthcare set- tings. Additional data are needed to further evaluate the effects of CenteringIMPPACT. Published: 12 June 2012 doi:10.1186/1472-6882-12-S1-P401 Cite this article as: Chao and Abercrombie: P05.41. Development and evaluation of group medical visits for medically underserved women with chronic pelvic pain. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2012 12(Suppl 1):P401. Univ of California, San Francisco, Osher Center for Integrative Med, San Francisco, USA Chao and Abercrombie BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2012, 12(Suppl 1):P401 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/12/S1/P401 © 2012 Chao and Abercrombie; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.