Adolescents' understanding of pain and their preferences for learning about pain at school: a cross-sectional survey.

Introduction: Pain contributes significant societal and economic burden, yet there are no well-resourced public education initiatives providing information about pain to the general population. Adolescence is an opportune time to deliver this information. Pain is prevalent in young people, and impacts their physical, social, and psychological health during adolescence and potentially throughout their life. Delivering pain education in schools ensures all adolescents have access to evidence-based information about pain, which could change the trajectory of pain across the lifespan. Few studies have delivered pain education to schoolchildren, and none have considered their preferences for learning about pain. We aimed to identify adolescents’ understanding of pain and their preferences for learning about pain in school to inform the development of a school-based pain education module. Methods: We conducted an online cross-sectional survey of 501 Australian students in grades 7–10 (mean age = 14 [SD 1.3]; 50.9% male) about their knowledge of pain using the Conceptualization of Pain Questionnaire, and preferences for pain education content and delivery mode when learning about pain at school. Results: On average, participants got approximately half (7.4) of the fifteen pain knowledge items correct. Participants preferred to learn about ways to treat pain (70.5%), different types of pain (67.1%) and the role of the brain and nerves in pain (62.1%). Most preferred to be taught about pain by health professionals (84.4%), followed by teachers (48.3%), through the combination educational video and class discussion (67.6%). Conclusions: Adolescents have some beliefs about pain and injury that do not align with current scientific understanding of pain. These misconceptions could be addressed in pain education at school. School-based pain education programs should include content that aligns with their preferences and use a combination of online and in-person approaches to engage adolescents.