Prevention of neck pain in adults with a Back School-Based intervention: a randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT

Background: Neck pain is a health problem worldwide. To prevent it, experts recommend exercise and education. Objective: To evaluate the effects of a Back School-based intervention for the prevention of nonspecific neck pain in a healthy adult population. Methods: A randomized controlled trial with 58 participants with no history of neck pain within the past six months. The experimental group performed an 8-week Back School-based program. The control group maintained their usual lifestyle. Primary outcomes, which include the number of episodes, days and intensity of neck pain, and the number of medical visits, were recorded in a 1-year follow-up diary and analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test. Secondary outcomes, such as neck flexor, neck extensor, and scapular muscles endurance, were analyzed using the ANOVA test. Results: In the analysis of the primary outcomes, no significant differences were found in the number of episodes (p = 0.068,d = −0.49), number of days (p = 0.059,d = −0.54), or the average intensity of neck pain (p = 0.061,d = −0.53). There were significant changes in the number of medical visits (p = 0.033,d = −0.57). Moving to secondary outcomes, significant interactions were observed in neck flexor (p = 0.045, ηp² = 0.036) and neck extensor endurance (p = 0.049, ηp² = 0.035), but not in scapular muscle endurance (p = 0.536, ηp² = 0.003). Conclusions: The Back School-based program reduced the number of medical visits and increased the endurance of the cervical musculature. Trial registration in ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05260645.

KEYWORDS:

• Exercise therapy
• health education
• neck pain
• musculoskeletal pain
• prevention
• rehabilitation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Author contributions

P. H.-L., R. L.-R., J. L.-B. and JL. G.-S. conceptualized and designed the study, drafted the initial manuscript, designed the data collection instruments, collected data, carried out the initial analyses, and critically reviewed the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the University of León Research Ethics Committee (code: ÉTICA-ULE-013-2022). All participants signed the informed consent for participation according to the Declaration of Helsinki (2013 version).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09593985.2024.2316313

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Colegio Oficial de Fisioterapeutas de Galicia under Grant [number not applicable.].