Efficacy and cost-effectiveness of physiotherapy for chronic rotator cuff pathology

Funded Activity Summary

Shoulder disorders are common, being third only to back and neck complaints as musculoskeletal reasons for medical consultation and accounting for 10% of all physiotherapy referrals. The painful shoulder affects up to 2-5% of the general population, being more common in middle to older age. One of the most common shoulder disorders is chronic rotator cuff pathology. This causes significant pain and disability that restricts activities of daily living as well as work, sleep and leisure. Forty percent of sufferers will continue to have symptoms beyond 3 years and 15% will have persistent disability which may require surgical intervention. Because this disorder is prevalent, it imposes a considerable burden on the Australian health care system. Physiotherapy is a common conservative treatment option but its efficacy has not been well established. A recent Cochrane review of the literature revealed several problems with many of the existing studies: (i) the populations have included a mix of shoulder diagnostic categories; (ii) the research designs have major flaws and (iii) a single physiotherapy modality has been evaluated rather than a combined program as is current clinical practice. Thus, this novel research project involving 200 participants will answer important questions about the efficacy of a physiotherapy program for chronic rotator cuff pathology and whether benefits can be maintained. In addition it will determine whether the costs of physiotherapy represent good value for money which is important in today's economic climate. The results of this project can be easily and immediately translated into clinical practice as recommendations can be made about the usefulness of physiotherapy for this patient population. The results will be of major benefit not just to the physiotherapy profession but to the medical profession who must justify patient referral to physiotherapy and to funding and compensable bodies.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2004

End Date: 01-01-2006

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $384,675.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Rehabilitation And Therapy: Occupational And Physical

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

evidence based clinical practice | musculoskeletal disorders | physiotherapy | randomised controlled trial | shoulder disorders

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