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Shoulder disorders in general practice: incidence, patient characteristics, and management

Article Abstract:

Complaints of shoulder pain or dysfunction are usually treated according to appropriate guidelines by doctors in The Netherlands. Researchers analyzed how shoulder complaints were handled by 11 general practices, representing a total of 35,150 patients. The annual incidence of shoulder complaints was found to be 11.2 per 1000 patients. Rotator cuff tendinitis was responsible for 29% of shoulder problems. Dutch doctors usually followed the clinical guidelines published in 1990 for treatment of shoulder disorders. These doctors administered injections to 22% of patients with shoulder problems. An accurate history of each patient's specific symptoms may identify the type of shoulder disorder. Shoulder problems occured most often in patients in their 40's, 50's, and 60's.

Care and treatment, Complications and side effects, Arthritis

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On the course of low back pain in general practice: a one year follow up study

Article Abstract:

Low back pain is likely to require many weeks to resolve, and commonly recurs within a year. Researchers in the Netherlands evaluated 269 patients who visited general practitioners for low back pain. Twelve weeks after visiting the doctor, 35% of patients continued to have pain. Back pain took an average of seven weeks to resolve, and 10% of patients still had pain after one year. A relapse of pain within a year occurred in 76% of patients. It is not clear that medical treatment either improved the outcome or diminished the likelihood of relapse in this patient group.

Development and progression, Backache, Back pain

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The responsiveness of the Shoulder Disability Questionnaire

Article Abstract:

The Shoulder Disability Questionnaire (SDQ) can effectively measure changes in shoulder pain and disability over time. The SDQ presents 16 routine daily activities and the patient indicates if the activities cause shoulder pain. Researchers compared SDQ, a severity of pain scale, and a functional status assessment in 335 patients over six months. The SDQ was highly sensitive to changes in shoulder pain, appropriately detecting an improvement or decline in the patients' conditions. However, it was not clearly better than the other assessment instruments.

Methods, Evaluation, Measurement, Disability evaluation, Questionnaires

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