Test-retest reliability of pain sensitivity measures in individuals with shoulder pain.

Rani Othman
Purpose:

Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the intra-rater test-retest reliability of QST and SMEP in individuals with chronic shoulder pain.

Methods:

Forty-seven individuals with chronic shoulder pain were enrolled in the study. The QST measures, including pressure pain threshold (PPT) and mechanical temporal summation (MTS) were tested, and SMEP was measured with a lifting task.Relative and absolute reliability were analyzed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC 3,1) and stander error of the measurement (SEM), respectively. 

Results:

The results showed that the ICC coefficients for all sensitivity measures were moderate to good, ranging from 0.63 to 0.86. The SEM% for the QST measures at all sites ranged from 21.4% to 36%, with TS at the forearm demonstrating a high SEM% (greater than 30%). The SMEP measure also showed a high SEM% (46%).The results showed that the ICC coefficients for all sensitivity measures were moderate to good, ranging from 0.63 to 0.86. The SEM% for the QST measures at all sites ranged from 21.4% to 36%, with TS at the forearm demonstrating a high SEM% (greater than 30%). The SMEP measure also showed a high SEM% (46%).

Conclusion(s):

The results showed that the sensitivity measures had moderate to good reliability among individuals with shoulder pain. Acceptable limits of accuracy of measurements were demonstrated for TS and PPT measures, while SMEP demonstrated high error, highlighting the need for further refinement of this measure among these population.

Implications:

The finding from this study has the potential to be of great value to health care professionals working in the evaluation and treatment of individuals with shoulder pain. In that assessing PPT, TS, and SMEP using a bedside tool may be combined with clinical assessment of patients with shoulder pain to identify the presence of CS. These instruments are commercially available, not extremely expensive, and met measurement standards in clinical setting. Furthermore, clinicians may utilize the information in this study to determine whether the change they observe between assessment sessions is due to true change or random error.

Funding acknowledgements:
The work was unfunded.
Keywords:
Shoulder pain
pain sensitivity measures
Reliability
Primary topic:
Pain and pain management
Second topic:
Musculoskeletal: upper limb
Third topic:
Musculoskeletal
Did this work require ethics approval?:
Yes
Name the institution and ethics committee that approved your work:
The study was approved via The Human Research Ethics Committee at King Abdulaziz University's Faculty of Medical Rehabilitation Sciences
Provide the ethics approval number:
Reference No. FMRS-EC2023-020
Has any of this material been/due to be published or presented at another national or international conference prior to the World Physiotherapy Congress 2025?:
Yes

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