Pain Education Program in the Sport Population

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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This study is designed to evaluate the effects of a pain neuroscience education program in pain perception, wellness and pain catastrophizing of youth athletes. For this, an experimental study with an intervention group (IG) and a control group (CG) is designed. During 12 weeks of the 2022-2023 season, CG will receive a self-care education program, with information about health habits in the sport (rest, nutrition, body care and recovery). Meanwhile, IG will also receive a pain neuroscience education program, with information about biological, psychological and perceptual aspect of pain in the sports context. The study will be developed in the Sport High Performance Centre of Balearic Islands, from January to May. All athletes from this sports centre will be invited to participate in the study throughout an e-mail invitation from their sport regional federation. Prior to the beginning of the study, all participants will sign the inform consent. The Ethical Committee of the local university approved this study (280CER22). One week before intervention period, all athletes will be required to complete questionnaire about sociodemographic and sportive data (age, sex, and sport experience). Body mass and height will be also evaluated. Also, all the athletes will be required to complete three questionnaires about pain level, wellness and pain catastrophizing. Pain level and wellness will be evaluated prior to the start of the intervention and weekly, until finishing the intervention period. The pain catastrophizing level will be evaluated before and after the intervention period of the study. We hypothesized that those athletes who receive the pain neuroscience education program will increase wellness and decrease pain level and catastrophizing perception compared to those athletes who received a self-care educational program.

Official Title
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Effects of the Pain Education Program in the Sport Population

Conditions
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Pain, Sports, Education

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Pain neuroscience education program
* Behavioral: Self-care education program


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: to have at least 14 years old to have at least 2 years of experience in the sport Exclusion Criteria: to have sustained an injury during the previous 6 months to start of the study to have sustained a surgery during the previous 12 months to start of the study

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 14 Years
Maximum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Double


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Intervention group<br>Intervention group will receive a pain neuroscience education program (once time per month, during 4 months). This program will include information about biological, psychological and perceptual aspects of pain in the sport context. | Behavioral: Pain neuroscience education program<br>* Types of pain (peripherical and central pain) Pain as information. Benign and harmful pain Psychological factors and pain in sport (Injuries, catastrophizing and pain)<br>|
| Active Comparator: Control group<br>The control group will receive a self-care education program (once time per month, during 4 months). This program will include information about health habits in the sport. | Behavioral: Self-care education program<br>* The importance of resting Nutritional habits Recovery techniques for athletes Principles of stretching, strengthening and endurance training<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Wellness level | It is composed by seven questions about wellness, perceived effort, training volume. Wellness was assessed throughout four questions about the subjective perception of the quality of sleep, the amount of stress, the level of perceived fatigue, mood and perceived muscle damage. Each question is individually scored from 1 (Very, very low, or very, very good) to 5 (Very, very high, or very, very bad), being 25 the maximal punctuation. | Change from baseline and between group differences in wellness during and after the intervention period of 12 weeks | 
| Pain level | Pain intensity is assessed by using the Pain Visual Analog Scale (VAS, 0-10), ranging from 0 (no pain) to 10 (the worst imaginable pain). In case of pain existence, anatomical location, duration (days), sports practice affection (yes/no) were also collected | Change from baseline and between group differences in pain during and after the intervention period of 12 weeks | 
| Pain catastrophizing level | It is designed to evaluate the catastrophizing level of athletes throughout the Pain Catastrophism Scale (PCS). The PCS assesses catastrophic level associated to pain experience through thirteen 4-points Likert items (from 0, not at all, to 4, all the time). Apart from global Catastrophism, PCS evaluates four subscales regarding rumination, helplessness, and magnification. The maximal score is 50 points. | Change from baseline and between group differences in pain catastrophizing after the intervention period of 12 weeks | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Pain education, Athlete, Pain catastrophizing