SELF-ASSESSMENT OF GENERAL HEALTH-STATUS IN PATIENTS WITH 5 COMMON SHOULDER CONDITIONS

The SF-36 Health Survey is a patient self-administered general health status evaluation designed to measure the impact of disease on an indi vidual's perception of his or her health. Five hundred forty-four pati ents with five common shoulder conditions (anterior glenohumeral insta bility (149 patients), complete reparable rotator cuff tear (1 1 1 pat ients), adhesive capsulitis (100 patients), glenohumeral osteoarthriti s (67 patients), and impingement (1 1 7 patients)) completed the SF-36 Health Survey before undergoing treatment. When compared with U.S. ge neral population norms, the patients with each of these shoulder condi tions had statistically significant decreases in their health for Phys ical Functioning, Role-Physical, Bodily Pain, Social Functioning, Role -Emotional, and the Physical Component Summary as measured by the SF-3 6 Health Survey. Comparison with published data demonstrated that thes e shoulder conditions rank in severity (in terms of affecting a patien t's perception of his or her general health) with Five major medical c onditions hypertension, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial inf arction, diabetes mellitus, and clinical depression). The data present ed in this study should serve as a baseline to document the impact of shoulder musculoskeletal conditions and possibly to allow comparison a mong various methods of operative and nonoperative treatment.