Shoulder disorders in the elderly: A community survey

✍ Scribed by M. D. Chard; R. Hazleman; B. L. Hazleman; R. H. King; B. B. Reiss

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 371 KB
• Volume: 34
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780340619

✦ Synopsis

A community survey of identifiable symptomatic shoulder disorders in a sample of 644 elderly people over age 70 (318 male and 326 female) revealed a prevalence of 21%. Shoulder disorders were more common in women (25%, versus 17% in men). Approximately 70% of the cases of shoulder pain involved the rotator cuff. Fewer than 40% of the subjects sought medical attention for these symptoms. Increased medical awareness is needed, since the elderly often do not volunteer information about such symptoms.

Hospital-based studies have suggested that nontraumatic symptomatic shoulder disorders, although common in middle-aged adults, are relatively rare in the elderly (1-3). One community survey found a less marked difference in prevalence, but the maximum age of the study subjects was only 74 years (4). These findings contrast with those of pathologic studies, which have suggested that there is progressive degeneration of the rotator cuff with age (5-7), with tendon rupture being found in 20% or more of shoulders from patients of all ages, examined postmortem (8-10). One study suggested that there was no true