Background Neck pain has a high prevalence and socioeconomic impact worldwide. The Back School consists of programs that include exercises and educational interventions to treat back pain. Accordingly, the main objective was to evaluate the effects of an intervention based on Back School on non-specific neck pain in an adult population. The secondary objectives were to analyze the effects on disability, quality of life and kinesiophobia. Methods A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 58 participants with non-specific neck pain divided into two groups. The experimental group (EG) carried out the 8-week programme based on the Back School, (two sessions per week, for a total of 16 sessions, lasting 45 min). Of all the classes, 14 had a practical focus (strengthening and flexibility exercises) and the other two had a theoretical focus (concepts of anatomy and healthy lifestyle). The control group (CG) stated that they did not vary their lifestyle. The assessment instruments were: Visual Analogue Scale, Neck Disability Index, Short-Form Health Survey-36 and Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia. Results The EG reduced pain (-40 points, CI95% [-42 to -37], g = -1.03, p < 0.001), EG had less disability (-9.3 points, CI95% [-10.8 to -7.8], g = -1.22, p < 0.001), EG improved the physical dimension of the survey Short-Form Health Survey-36 (4.8 points, CI95% [4.1 to 5.5], g = 0.55, p = 0.01) but had not significant change in psychosocial dimension of the survey Short-Form Health Survey-36 and EG reduced Kinesiophobia (-10.8 points, CI95% [-12.3 to -9.3], g = -1.84, p < 0.001). The CG did not obtain significant results in any variable of the study. Significant differences in change between both groups were found on pain (-11 points, CI95% [5.6 to 16.6], p < 0.001, g = 1.04), disability (-4 points, CI95% [2.5 to 6.2], p < 0.001, g = 1.23), physical dimension of the survey Short-Form Health Survey-36 (3 points, CI95% [-4-4 to -2-5], p = 0.01, g = -1.88), and kinesiophobia ( 7 points, CI95%[-8.3 to -5.4], p < 0.001, g = 2.04), while no significant differences were found on psychosocial dimension of the survey Short-Form Health Survey-36 (-0.02, CI95% [-1.7 to 1.8], g = 0.01, p = 0.98). Conclusions The back school-based programme has beneficial effects on pain, neck disability, the physical dimension of quality of life and kinesiophobia in an adult population with non-specific neck pain. However, it did not lead to improvements in the psychosocial dimension of the participants’ quality of life. This programme could be applied by health care providers with the aim of reducing the severe socio-economic impact of non-specific neck pain worldwide. Trial registration in ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05244876 (registered prospectively, date of registration: 17/02/2022).

Background: Low back pain is highly prevalent and has a major socio-economic impact worldwide. Among the rehabilitation options is the Back School, which consists of programmes that include exercise and educational interventions to treat and prevent back pain. The effects of this type of programme are usually evaluated in patients with low back pain. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects on low back functionality and the prevention of medical visits due to low back pain during one year of follow-up in a healthy adult population. Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted with 56 healthy participants who were divided into an experimental group (n = 30), who underwent the programme consisting of a total of 16 sessions, and a control group (n = 26), who did not undergo the intervention. All participants were administered the Partial Curl-up Test, Biering Sorense Test, Modified Schöber Test, and Toe Touch Test, and they completed the Short Form 36 Health Survey before and after the intervention. In addition, a telephone call was made to ask whether they attended a doctor for low back pain in the following year post-intervention. Results: In the experimental group, statistically significant improvements were observed in trunk muscle strength, spinal flexion joint range of motion, and hamstring flexibility, and they had fewer visits to the doctor for low back pain in the following year. Conclusions: The theoretical–practical programme based on the Back School seems to have beneficial effects on low back functionality by increasing its strength and flexibility in an adult population. In addition, this programme reduced the number of medical visits due to low back pain during the following year after the intervention.

Blockchain technology provides a distributed support for information storage and traceability. Recently, it has been booming in a wide variety of domains: finance, food, energy, and health. In the field of physical activity, physical exercise, sport, and active ageing, this technology could also originate some interesting services introducing support for reliable repository of results, for gamification, or for secure data interchange. This systematic review explores the use of blockchain in this context. The objective is to determine to which extent this technology has fulfilled the potential of blockchain to bring these new added-value services. The authors explored 5 repositories in search of papers describing solutions applied to the above-mentioned frame. 17 papers were selected for full-text analysis, and they displayed diverse applications of blockchain, such as Fitness and healthcare, Sport, and Active ageing. A detailed analysis shows that the solutions found do not leverage all the possibilities of blockchain technology. Most of the solutions analyzed use blockchain for managing, sharing, and controlling access to data and do not exploit the possibilities of Smart Contracts or oracles. Additionally, the advantages of the blockchain model have not been fully exploited to engage users using approaches such as gamification.

Background Clinical practice guidelines emphasize the importance of the prevention and treatment of non-specific back pain through exercise therapy and health education. However, it has not yet been confirmed that the combination of exercise plus education is more effective than usual medical care. Objective The aim of this study was to determine if the combination of exercise plus education is more effective for the prevention of non-specific back pain than usual medical care. Materials and methods A systematic search in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Medline was conducted with the terms Back Pain, Neck Pain, Musculoskeletal Pain, Exercise, Exercise Therapy, Health Education, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Primary Prevention, Secondary Prevention and Clinical Trial. The inclusion criteria were: articles published from 2016 to 2021, the intervention included exercise and education, and the sample consisted of non-specific back pain patients. Results A total of 4 randomized controlled trials were selected (average PEDro score 6.5 points). The meta-analysis showed statistically significant differences in the pain intensity, standardized mean differences was found to be −0.75 (95% CI = −1.41 to −0.08; p = 0.03); and in disability, standardized mean differences was found to be −0.24 (95% CI = −0.38 to −0.1; p = 0.001). Conclusions Interventions combining exercise and education seem to have a greater preventive effect on non-specific back pain than usual medical care. Key messages Exercise therapy and health education combination prevent better non-specific back pain than usual care. Combining exercise with educational interventions has a higher improvement on disability and kinesophobia than usual care.

Impaired balance and lower body weakness are the main causes of falls, which are considered to be the major cause of fractures and head injuries in the elderly and are recognised as a serious health problem. The aim of this study is to observe the effect of eccentric training, introducing new technologies (gliding discs), on body composition, lower body strength, balance and quality of life. A quasi-experimental study was carried out with 56 healthy participants who were divided into an experimental group (n = 31) who underwent the protocol consisting of 12 training sessions and a control group (n = 25) who did not undergo the training. Before and after the intervention, all participants underwent a measurement of body composition, the SJ jump, balance with accelerometry and quality of life with the Short Form 12 Health Survey. In the experimental group, statistically significant improvements were found in the variables balance and lower body strength. The application of this training protocol improves lower body strength and the ability to control balance in the adult population.