Reducing Shoulder Complaints in Employees With High Occupational Shoulder Exposures
Condition: Shoulder Pain
MeSH terms: Shoulder Pain
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of Shoulder-Café (intervention) compared to
      Shoulder-Guidance (control intervention) with respect to shoulder exposures and shoulder
      complaints.

      Hypothesis: The Shoulder-Café, which unifies education, diagnostic clarification, supervised
      and home-based shoulder exercises, and advice from a health and safety consultant on
      workplace interventions, will reduce shoulder exposures and shoulder complaints more
      effectively than an individual-oriented control intervention with home-based shoulder
      exercises and written general advice on workplace interventions.
    

Detailed description: 
      Introduction:

      Shoulder complaints prevail in the working age population and constitute a common cause of
      contacts with general practitioners. In occupations with high mechanical shoulder exposures,
      these complaints are especially frequent. Persons with high occupational mechanical shoulder
      exposures and shoulder complaints seem an obvious target group for secondary prevention
      efforts, and more research on interventions targeting shoulder complaints in occupations with
      high shoulder exposures is needed.

      The aim is to develop and evaluate a Shoulder-Café intervention to reduce high occupational
      mechanical shoulder exposures and prolonged shoulder complaints.

      The specific objectives are:

      I. To evaluate the effectiveness of the Shoulder-Café as compared to the
      control-intervention, the Shoulder-Guidance, measured on reductions in shoulder complaints.

      II. To evaluate the effectiveness of the Shoulder-Café as compared to the Shoulder-Guidance
      measured on reductions in occupational mechanical shoulder exposures.

      III. To identify the influence of shoulder exercises and reduced occupational mechanical
      shoulder exposures, respectively, on shoulder complaints.

      The hypothesis is that the Shoulder-Café will reduce shoulder exposures and shoulder
      complaints more effectively than the Shoulder-Guidance. Furthermore, a hypothesis is that
      fear avoidance beliefs is reduced and the degree to which the participants feel informed
      about the nature of their complaints and their remedies is increased more effectively with
      the Shoulder-Café compared to the control intervention.

      Method:

      The project consists of a two-armed, cluster-randomised controlled trial with randomisation
      at company level (objectives I and II) and a prospective cohort study based on the
      cluster-randomised study (objective III).

      Follow-up: A questionnaire 3 and 9 months after end of intervention with e.g. OSS.
    

Intervention name(s): Shoulder-Café; Shoulder-Guidance
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Education and individual counselling, clinical examination, supervised shoulder exercise. Some participants can be offered a workplace visit.; Home-based shoulder exercise and written counselling.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Shoulder Pain; Occupational Exposure; Clinical Trial