Shoulder PAST v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Shoulder Pain Study
IRAS ID
173654
Contact name
Philip Conaghan
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 2 days
Research summary
Shoulder pain is very common, affecting 7 in every 100 adults. It increases with ageing, and will become even more common as the UK population rapidly ages. It causes significant pain and disability for individuals and is costly, annually resulting in 4.2 million sick days and costs of £3000 per person with persistent shoulder pain. Treatments are few and often have short-term benefits; worryingly, half of those with shoulder pain still have pain after 18 months. Diagnosis of shoulder problems starts with clinical assessment which is often inaccurate; this may contribute to poor outcomes. Modern imaging, especially ultrasound, is increasingly used as it provides accurate diagnosis. However, the relationship between pain and imaging findings is unclear. The causes of persistent pain have not been explored using this accurate imaging. It is also not clear which ultrasound features will tell us who will have poor long-term outcomes.
The aims are:
To conduct a retrospective survey to evaluate features associated with persistent shoulder pain.
Primary objective:
1. In people with shoulder pain, presenting from primary care for an ultrasound scan, to determine which clinical demographic, ultrasound features and treatments predict long-term symptoms.
Secondary objectives
1. To determine the quality of life of patients with long-term shoulder pain.
2. To use the information from the above to develop a stratification tool.To achieve these aims we will:
Collect pain, function and quality of life information from people who are routinely referred to the Radiology Department in Chapel Allerton Hospital from their GP for a shoulder ultrasound. This will be done by a single postal questionnaire sent to patients who have had an ultrasound scan more than 12 months earlier. We aim to collect 500 responses.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NE/0115
Date of REC Opinion
25 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion