Association of Shoulder Pain With the Use of Mobility Devices in Persons With Chronic Spinal Cord Injury
By Jain, Nitin B.; Higgins, Laurence D.; Katz, Jeffrey N.; Garshick, Eric; PM&R, Volume 2, Number 10, pages 896-900Publication Date: October 2010
Study assessed the prevalence of shoulder pain and its association with the use of assistive devices for mobility in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). Participants were 93 individuals with chronic SCI with a mean age of 53.6 years, 87 of whom were men. Between August 2005 and January 2008, participants completed a standardized health questionnaire and a pain questionnaire. To assess mobility, participants were asked what mobility devices they used to get around, and to assess pain, participants were queried on the site of their pain and whether it had occurred within the last 6 months. Sixty-five participants reported pain at one of the sites in the 6 months before testing, the most common of which included legs (47 percent), back (45 percent), shoulder (40 percent), feet (39 percent), and hands (30 percent). Of those 65 participants, 37, or 56.9 percent, reported the shoulder as one of the sites of pain. When stratified by the use of assistive mobility devices, shoulder pain was reported by 46.7 percent of motorized wheelchair users, 35.4 percent of manual wheelchair users, 47.6 percent of participants using aids such as crutches or canes, and 33.3 percent of those walking without assistance. Findings suggest that, in addition to overuse injury from cyclic wheelchair propulsion, the assessment of other mechanical and nonmechanical factors that lead to shoulder pain in SCI is an unmet research need that may have treatment implications.
Published by: Elsevier Inc. (Website:http://www.elsevier.com)
Link to text: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3078578/?tool=pmcentrez
