In the general population shoulder pain is a significant cause of pain and disability. Prevalence of shoulder pain is high- in the UK it is estimated to be 7%, rising to 26% in the over-60s age group. Approximately 1% of adults consult their general practitioner with shoulder pain annually (Urwin et al 1998) – the equivalent of 40000 Irish adults. Conservative management in the form of physiotherapy including exercise, advice and manual therapy, is considered to be the most appropriate first-line treatment. Despite being less costly than the alternative (e.g. surgery), the one-to-one nature of physiotherapy consultations for shoulder pain incur a significant healthcare cost. With increasingly scarce resources in the health care environment, many people with shoulder pain are experiencing long waits for physiotherapy treatment. Delivering exercise rehabilitation in group rather than individual settings has been shown to have multiple benefits in some areas of physiotherapy, including improving patient motivation, providing peer- support, and optimising resource utilisation (English et al 2007, Lamb et al 2009). However no research has examined the use of group exercise for shoulder pain.
A new project has commenced which involves delivering group physiotherapy classes for people with shoulder pain. It is essential to evaluate this new practice development to establish the effectiveness of this approach. I propose to undertake an evaluation of patients’ opinions of their experience of participating in these classes, using one-to-one interviews. This information will be used to improve the delivery of these classes and provide justification for their further roll-out.
