Standing and Walking Balance in Patients with Chronic Shoulder Pain: A Case-control Study

Patients with shoulder pain may have proprioceptive and balance deficits. However, studies on balance in patients with shoulder pain are scarce.

This study aims to investigate if patients with chronic shoulder pain demonstrate deficits in standing and walking balance and to study the relationship between outcome measures of balance and age and body mass index (BMI).

This case-control study was conducted at Dammam Medical Complex, Dammam, Saudi Arabia, between March and November 2018. The study recruited patients (n = 15) with chronic shoulder pain (>4 months) and healthy controls (n = 15) matched for age, gender and BMI. Standing balance was tested using a Challenge Disc test, the Romberg test and timed unipedal stance test (UPST). Walking balance was assessed using the timed up and go (TUG) test, stance phase duration and center of pressure (COP) deviation. Independent t-tests were used to investigate the differences between the two groups in demographic data and all the outcome measurements. Pearson correlation coefficients were used for correlation analysis.

No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in any outcome of the standing balance (P ≥ 0.095) or walking balance (P ≥ 0.160). However, medium effect sizes were found for the UPST (η²: ≥0.06), Challenge Disc (η²: 0.06), TUG (Cohen's d: 0.54) and COP deviation (Cohen's d: 0.53). There was a moderate correlation between BMI and Challenge Disc (P = 0.025) and between age and Challenge Disc (P = 0.012) in both the groups.

Patients with chronic shoulder pain had lower balance measurements compared with healthy people, although this difference was not statistically significant.