title: Shoulder physical activity, functional disability and task difficulties in patients with stiff shoulders: interpretation from RT3 accelerator.
abstract: We determined whether the degree of symptom-related functional disability was related to daily physical activity of the shoulder in subjects with stiff shoulders (SSs). Responsiveness and a clinically meaningful level of discrimination between improvement and non-improvement for shoulder physical activity (SPA) were determined. Twenty-six subjects with SSs participated. Shoulder physical activity was assessed by RT3 accelerometers fixed on the humerus during daily 14-h data collection periods twice a week for 2 weeks. A moderate correlation coefficient was found between SPA and functional disability (β = .47). Based on our cohort design and sample, we suggest that SPA (higher than 101.8 counts, hard-moderate or hard tasks) during daily activity are associated with (with at least 83% probability) non-improvement in an individual with SS. Compared to the non-improvement group, the improvement group had less duration of sedentary activity, less frequency and duration of hard tasks, and more frequency and duration of easy tasks (p < 0.01). Appropriate guidance on shoulder physical activities for subjects with SS is important to consider in rehabilitation strategies for these subjects. In our sample, a hard level of shoulder physical activity and sedentary activity should be cautious for these subjects. Further study is needed to validate therapeutic effect of physical activity on the course of patient improvement in subjects with SSs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jing-Lan
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taiwan; School and Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: jiujlin@ntu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Jiu-Jenq
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: School and Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Han-Yi
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School and Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tsun-Shun
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School and Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu Wen
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Chao
mesh_terms: D061725:Accelerometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D000368:Aged; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D010147:Pain Measurement; D012372:ROC Curve; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular / Q000502:physiology*; D012785:Shoulder Joint / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020069:Shoulder Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
keywords: RT3 accelerator; Shoulder physical activity; Stiff shoulder