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Hospital-based exercise classes linked with rapid recovery from frozen shoulder
Compared with individual physiotherapy or a home exercise program, a hospital-based exercise class was associated with rapid recovery from frozen shoulder, according to a recently published study.
Researchers randomly assigned 75 patients a group exercise class, individual physiotherapy or home exercises alone. Researchers reviewed patients’ range of motion, Constant Score, Oxford Shoulder Score, Short Form-36 and Hospital Anxiety and Disability Scale (HADS) scores at baseline, 6 weeks, 6 months and 1 year.
They discovered improvement in the exercise class group from a mean Constant Score of 39.8 at baseline to 71.4 at 6 weeks and 88.1 at 1 year, as well as a significant improvement in shoulder symptoms in the Oxford and Constant scores compared to the individual physiotherapy or home exercises alone groups. Patients who underwent physiotherapy groups experienced significantly greater improvement in range of motion compared to those who had home exercises, according to the study. During the course treatment, researchers found a significant improvement in HADS scores, with significantly greater improvement in HADS anxiety scores in both physiotherapy intervention groups than exercises alone.
“This study demonstrates that an exercise class, aimed at a rapid recovery rate with a minimum number of interventions, provides superior patient-reported outcomes in relieving the signs and symptoms of frozen shoulder compared with those having individual multimodal physiotherapy or performing home exercises,” the researchers wrote in the study. “However, standard multimodal physiotherapy remains a good alternative and has been demonstrated to be significantly better than unsupervised exercise at home.”
Disclosure: The researchers have no relevant financial disclosures.