Patient Characteristics and Clinical Management of Patients with Shoulder Pain in U.S. Primary Care Settings: Secondary Data Analysis of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey

Although shoulder pain is a commonly encountered problem in primary care, there are few studies examining its presenting characteristics and clinical management in this setting. We performed secondary data analysis of 692 office visits for shoulder pain collected through the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (Survey years 1993–2000). Information on demographic characteristics, history and place of injury, and clinical management (physician order of imaging, physiotherapy, and steroid intraarticular injection) were examined