Empowering South Asian Women to Effectively Manage Chronic Pain: A Multi-Phase Study

South Asian women (SAW) are one of the groups that are more likely to be affected by chronic pain. However, they continue to remain underrepresented in research, resulting in a lack of understanding about their needs, experiences, and how they manage their condition. These insights are essential for delivering holistic and culturally sensitive care, as ethnicity and sex influence both pain perception and behaviour. The overarching aim of this research was to gain a better understanding of SAW's experiences of living with chronic pain and to explore ways that could potentially improve health outcomes. This project adopted a predominantly qualitative approach consisting of one study with three different components. Phase one involved conducting a meta-synthesis to gain a collective and comprehensive understanding of women's lived experiences of chronic pain and identify gaps in our knowledge about SAW's experiences. The second phase involved conducting qualitative interviews to address the gaps identified from the review. The third component, an action research study, was divided into three separate stages. The initial stage, through focus groups, explored the key challenges that SAW living with chronic pain face as well as potential solutions. The second stage involved using this data to develop an intervention and resource, and the third stage evaluated them. SAW aged between twenty-four and seventy-eight years, experiencing chronic pain, from the UK were recruited using a combination of snowball and purposive sampling for the second and third phases. The qualitative data were analysed inductively using reflexive thematic analysis. Analysis of the fifty-six studies in phase one provided a deeper understanding of the impact of pain on women's lives, the numerous losses they experienced, and their path to seeking solace and self-empowerment. The second phase identified themes relating to SAW’s experiences of chronic pain, its impact, their needs, and coping strategies. Three key themes were identified during the final evaluation stage: Resource Design and Content, Effects, and Continued Engagement. Participants' mean scores on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale were collected before and after the intervention. Statistical analysis showed a significant improvement of approximately ten points in mean post-intervention scores (p ≤.001). The themes generated from the analysis of data at each stage are discussed in relation to psychological theories and research on pain management. The contributions and implications of each research phase, the limitations, guidelines for those supporting women living with pain, and suggestions for future research are also stated.