Researchers at the School of Physiotherapy's Centre for Health, Activity, and Rehabilitation Research (CHARR) and the Dunedin School of Medicine (DSM) have been awarded a Health Research Council Feasibility Grant for exploring the feasibility of a trial designed to assess effectiveness of tailored rehabilitation versus a standard exercise programme.
The project is led by Dr Daniel Ribeiro (CHARR) and supported by associate investigators, Dr Gisela Sole (CHARR) and A/P Haxby Abbott (DSM). This project is part of ongoing research at the School of Physiotherapy's research centre (CHARR) on shoulder rehabilitation
About the research
Shoulder pain, the third most common musculoskeletal problem, is a burden on patients and family and on the national health system.
Shoulder pain is a challenging symptom, with only 50 per cent of new episodes presenting full-recovery within six months.
Based on our laboratory-based research, we propose a tailored rehabilitation might be more effective than standard exercise for patients with shoulder pain. We propose a feasibility trial to: (1) assess participant recruitment rate; the proportion of participants enrolled from the total number screened; adherence to the rehabilitation programme, and drop-out rates; (2) obtain estimates of adverse reactions to treatment; (3) test adapted protocols and outcome measure instruments; and (4) obtain estimates of intervention effects in order to inform the sample size of the full trial.
This study will determine whether it is feasible to conduct the full trial to assess the clinical- and cost-efficacy of tailored rehabilitation for patients with shoulder pain.
Contact: daniel.ribeiro@otago.ac.nz
For more about Shoulder research within CHARR see:
Shoulder biomechanics and rehabilitation
Pain education and rehabilitation for persistant shoulder pain