Shoulder pain is a common condition encountered in primary care, and although guidelines recommend either corticosteroid injection or physiotherapist-led exercise therapy when initial conservative measures fail, robust long-term comparative evidence between these approaches remains limited. To address this gap, a study evaluated the clinical effectiveness of a corticosteroid injection versus physiotherapist-led exercise therapy involving 200 adults with non-traumatic shoulder pain presenting in primary care.
The study found that the injection group demonstrated a significantly greater short-term improvement in Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI) scores at 6 weeks (mean difference −7.7). However, the exercise therapy group showed significantly greater improvements at longer follow-up intervals, including 6 months (mean difference 9.6), 9 months (mean difference 7.9), and 12 months…
