PANDA-S: Prognostic AND Diagnostic Assessment of Shoulder Pain research study

Shoulder problems affect 20% of adults and are often very painful, affecting sleep, work, and everyday life. Most patients receive treatment from GPs or physiotherapists, but 7 times more patients are having surgery compared with 10 years ago. There is no evidence that surgery provides better results than non-surgical treatments such as shoulder exercises.

In order to develop and test a better approach to assessing the likely cause (diagnosis) and future outcome (prognosis) of shoulder problems we aim to recruit 1000 patients consulting their GP or self-referring to physiotherapy with shoulder pain to a follow-up study. Their GPs and physiotherapists will continue to treat them in the way they feel is most appropriate. Willing participants will complete 6 questionnaires on pain, difficulties with everyday activities, treatments, and quality of life over 3 years, providing unique information about long-term outcomes. They will also be invited to attend an optional clinical assessment including an ultrasound scan of the shoulder and/or complete an optional app or respond to text messages once a week for 12 weeks to provide short term information on shoulder pain and difficulties with everyday activities. They will additionally be invited to participate in an optional interview about their shoulder pain.