How Common Is Shoulder Pain?
You’re not alone if you feel shoulder pain constantly. A very recent systematic review about the prevalence of shoulder pain stratified the risk by age and occupation. This information is beneficial because when you know you’re at high risk, you can take measures to reduce the incidence of this problem.
After joining data from 21 studies, we can see clearly that shoulder pain is more common as we age, especially after age 50, as long as patients are not yet retired. The incidence in sedentary jobs is not remarkable, but it also happens in this group because it usually requires sitting for an extended period in front of a computer with the arms stretched and away from the rest of the body.
Interestingly, the data about farmers shows that there is no significant increase in shoulder pain after the age of 65 years. However, this is probably because older farmers tend to slow down after age 50. In contrast, physically demanding jobs will have a higher incidence in seniors, especially if they constantly need to use their upper limbs.
Among young patients, shoulder pain is usually associated with sports injuries and bad technique in the gym. This type of pain is typically limited to a short period, but some patients can develop chronic symptoms when they have a sustained lesion.