Effectiveness of the Soc la Lola School Health Education Program on Beliefs and Knowledge About Musculoskeletal Pain Management in 8-11-Year-Old Primary School Students: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
Effectiveness of the Soc la Lola School Health Education Program on Beliefs and Knowledge About Musculoskeletal Pain Management in 8-11-Year-Old Primary School Students: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
Musculoskeletal pain during childhood can negatively affect school attendance, physical activity, and social participation. This study will evaluate the effectiveness of the school-based health education program 'SocLaLola', which uses a comic-based narrative to introduce children to pain science concepts and promote healthy lifestyle habits. The intervention will be compared with a standard program focused on sedentary behavior prevention. Students aged 8 to 11 years from two primary schools will participate. The primary objective is to determine whether SocLaLola is more effective than the comparison program in improving children's knowledge about pain and in reducing fear-avoidance beliefs related to physical activity.
This randomized controlled trial will evaluate the effectiveness of the 'SocLaLola' school-based health education program compared with a sedentary lifestyle prevention program in modifying pain-related beliefs and knowledge among children aged 8 to 11 years. The primary outcomes are improvements in pain science knowledge and reductions in fear-avoidance beliefs toward physical activity.
Participants will be recruited from schools participating in the Catalan Board of Physiotherapists' School Health Program. Two primary schools will take part, each contributing two fourth-grade classes. Randomization was performed at the class level (cluster randomization), stratified by school. Within each of the two participating schools, the two fourth-grade classes were randomly allocated, one to the intervention group (SocLaLola Program) and one to the control group (Stop Sedentarism Program), using the online randomization service Sealed Envelope (Sealed Envelope Ltd, London, UK). Allocation was concealed from the outcome assessor.
Both interventions will be delivered by trained physiotherapists in a single 45-60 minute session. The SocLaLola program combines pain science education with strategies to reduce sedentary behavior, presented through a comic-based narrative. The control group will receive audiovisual materials focusing exclusively on sedentary behavior.
Assessments will be conducted at baseline, immediately after the session, and at six months. Data collection and analysis will follow a single-blind design. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of the Catalan Board of Physiotherapists (CER CFC).
Inclusion criteria:
Exclusion criteria: