Evaluating shoulder pain; diagnostics and its interpretation

Abstract

Shoulder pain is a very common disorder and a large number of patients consult a physical therapist. If a patient consults a physical therapist, a diagnostic process will start, including history taking (possibly with additional PROMs) and followed by physical examination (possibly followed by additional tests such as ultrasound). Shoulder pain can impact activity limitations and is, in many cases, a treatment goal. Therefore, it is important to objectify these limitations. Our review recommended using the SPADI in English, Norwegian and Turkish. In Dutch however, the SST and the SDQ were recommended. We assessed the measurement properties of the Dutch SPADI and concluded the SPADI-D is valid, reliable and responsive, moreover the measurement error and the minimal clinical important change are known. As PROMs are not yet completely implemented in clinical care and reasons for not using them are mainly time-based, we assessed