Effect of Altering Sitting Posture on Clinical Shoulder Tests in Individuals with and without Shoulder Impingement Syndrome

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Shoulder pain is the third most prevalent musculoskeletal disorder after low back pain and neck pain. Shoulder impingement syndrome is believed to account for 44-65% of all shoulder complaints. It is established that the subacromial space and the acromiohumeral distance (AHD) are increased in the upright position as compared to slouched and neutral positions. The rationale of this study is therefore to find out if these sitting postures modify the clinical output of the three commonly used clinical shoulder tests for shoulder impingement.

METHOD: This was a cross-sectional analytical study with 50 subjects (25 - study subjects, 25 - controls) of age 30 to 50 years with and without shoulder impingement syndrome respectively. 3 clinical shoulder tests (Neer test, Hawkins-Kennedy test, and Empty Can test) were performed on all the subjects in 3 different sitting positions (neutral, upright, and slouched sitting).

RESULTS: There was a significant difference in the pains levels while performing the clinical shoulder tests in slouched vs upright sitting (p = <0.05). However, there was no difference in the pain levels while performing the test in neutral sitting vs slouched sitting or neutral sitting vs upright sitting.

CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that changing the sitting posture may alter the pain levels while performing clinical tests in shoulder impingement syndrome patients.

KEYWORDS: Posture, Shoulder pain, impingement syndrome