Posterior shoulder tightness; an intersession reliability study of 3 clinical tests.
Kevin Hall, Jeremy Lewis, Ann Moore and 1 others
PMID 32742721WHAT IT FOUND
Three clinical tests for posterior shoulder tightness remained consistent when repeated 6 to 10 weeks later in healthy adults.
Side-to-side differences exceeding 10 degrees in two tests, or 20 degrees in one, likely reflect true tightness rather than measurement error.
Key findings
01All three tests showed good inter-session reliability with ICC values between 0.86 and 0.88.
02The minimum change required to detect real improvement was between 9.7 and 13.3 degrees.
03The proposed definition for posterior shoulder tightness is a side-to-side difference of 10 degrees or more in two of three tests, or 20 degrees or more in a single test.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was performed on healthy adults without pain, so the reliability may differ in patients with shoulder pain due to guarding or apprehension. The sample size was small at 26 participants. The study did not examine the correlation between the three different tests, so it is unknown if a deficit in one test aligns with a deficit in another.
The easy way to misread this
Do not apply these reliability values directly to patients with shoulder pain. The study only tested asymptomatic participants, so measurement error might be higher in patients who guard or tense up during testing.