Responsiveness of pain, shoulder external rotation range of motion, and disability in individuals with shoulder adhesive capsulitis

Abstract

Shoulder adhesive capsulitis is evident with pain, decreased active range of motion (AROM), and disability. Knowing the responsiveness of these clinical outcomes is beneficial in management of shoulder adhesive capsulitis. This study therefore aimed to investigate the responsiveness of pain, AROM, and disability in individuals with shoulder adhesive capsulitis. Twenty-four subjects were measured for pain, active external rotation (AER), and disability at baseline and 2 weeks after interventions. Change scores, effect size (ES), and standardized response mean (SRM) for internal responsiveness, and the correlation with satisfaction for external responsiveness were calculated in each parameter. There were significant differences between baseline and after-intervention data in all clinical outcomes. It was found that pain, AER, and disability were responsive according to high SRM (ranged from 0.87 to 2.61) but low correlation with the satisfaction. This study found that pain, AER, and disability were responsive in detecting the changes in individuals with shoulder adhesive capsulitis from time to time.