Development and Validation of a Novel Neck Care Module in Patients With Chronic Mechanical Neck Pain

Neck and back pain represent a major source of disability worldwide and are associated with significant health and economic impacts. Patient education and self-management are recognized as essential components of chronic pain management within multidisciplinary care approaches. However, despite the widespread use of various educational strategies in clinical practice, there is a notable scarcity of literature from India on structured educational materials or programs specifically designed to address chronic neck pain, indicating a critical gap in culturally relevant, evidence-based educational interventions in this context.

This study aims to develop and validate a neck care module for patients with chronic mechanical neck pain. The first objective is to develop a structured neck care module specifically designed for individuals experiencing chronic mechanical neck pain. The second objective is to evaluate the developed module for face and content validity to ensure its clarity, relevance, comprehensiveness, and suitability for patient education and clinical use.

Phase 1 of the study involved the systematic development of a neck care module through four sequential stages. First, a comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify relevant evidence and existing recommendations related to the management of chronic mechanical neck pain. Second, illustrative images were created to visually support the educational content and enhance patient understanding. Third, the module was prepared by integrating evidence-based information with the developed visual materials to ensure clarity and practical applicability. Finally, the preliminary module was reviewed through consultation with multidisciplinary stakeholders involved in pain management to obtain expert input and refine the content. Draft versions of the module were evaluated using the patient education materials assessment tool (PEMAT) to assess understandability and actionability. The final module was validated for content and face validity by experts and the target audience, respectively.  Results: The developed neck care module demonstrated acceptable content validity (CVI = 0.85) and excellent face validity (97.89% agreement), indicating that experts and target users perceive the module's content as relevant, comprehensive, and appropriate for patients with chronic mechanical pain.

These validation findings support the module's potential as a reliable educational tool to enhance patient understanding and self-management, warranting further evaluation of its clinical effectiveness in practice.