CLINICAL SCIENCES Clinical Investigations Shoulder Pain: A Comparison of Wheelchair Athletes and Nonathletic Wheelchair Users

compare the onset and prevalence of shoulder pain in athletic and nonathletic wheelchair users. Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to athletic and nonathletic wheelchair-dependent populations. This inquired about presence and duration of shoulder pain, age of subject, level of injury, duration of time since injury, wheelchair use, involvement in sports, and training habits. A total of 257 subjects were involved in the study. Results: The odds of having shoulder pain were twice as high among nonathletes as they were among athletes. This finding represents a significant difference over and above age differences, differences in years spent in a wheelchair, and differences in level of spinal cord injury. Athletes also have an average of 12 yr free of shoulder pain after becoming wheelchair bound, whereas nonathletes have only 8 yr. Conclusion: Promotion of active exercise for wheelchair users is encouraged to decrease shoulder pain, resulting in more functional, pain-free years. Key Words: DISABLED, SPORTS, SPINAL CORD INJURY, EXERCISE Shoulder pain is a well-known problem in manualwheelchair users. Up to 78 % of individuals withspinal cord injury have been reported to have shoul-der pain, but most studies report a prevalence of about one-third in paraplegics and slightly higher numbers for quadriplegics (3,7,8,10,11,14). One cause of this is thought to be the weight-bearing role of the shoulder: a joint that was designed for mobility rather than for stability (1,13). Th