Whether in orthopedic or rehabilitation medicine clinics, shoulder pain (SP) is the third most common musculoskeletal complaint in primary care, affecting 18%-26% of adults at any point in time Affected by SP. Recurrent and long-term SP will affect the patient's ability to carry out activities of daily living and work, leading to poor prognosis and reduced quality of life, and even disability, with substantial economic costs, including increased demand for health care, job disruption, substantial sick leave, and early retirement or unemployment, etc. SP is a common clinical complaint symptom, not a precise clinical diagnosis, and the corresponding pathological diagnosis still needs to be supplemented. Many pathological factors can lead to shoulder pain, such as rotator cuff/biceps tendinopathy, glenohumeral joint disease, acromioclavicular joint disease, neck, and visceral disease referred pain, etc. The risk factors leading to pathological conditions of the shoulder joint are various, such as trauma, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, endocrine diseases, etc. It is of great clinical significance to study the etiology of SP. Understanding and identifying risk factors for shoulder pathology and paying attention to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of associated diseases can help clinicians make more comprehensive and effective medical decisions.

To study the pathologies and risk factors for shoulder pain to implement the intervention and prevent shoulder pain earlier.

In the department of rehabilitation medicine between March 2019 and March 2022, medical records of all patients with the diagnosis of shoulder pain or frozen shoulder March or rotator cuff injury were screened. Descriptive statistics were made for gender, age, left and right arms, etiology, pathological diagnosis, and comorbidity, with 95% confidence using Excel (version 2208) .

A total of 649 patients with shoulder pain were selected, mainly from 30 to 70 years old, averaging (51.30 ±13.80) years; males 47.8%, females 52.2%; left arm 36.8%, right arm 60.6%, and bilateral 2.6%. Most outpatients with shoulder pain were acute (314, 48.38%) and moderated to severe (46.69% / 42.99%) with a course of fewer than three months. Still, the number of patients with subacute and chronic shoulder pain (335) was higher than that of acute shoulder pain. Traumatic shoulder pain accounted for 36.06% of more men than women; non-traumatic shoulder pain accounted for 63.94% of more women than men; Of all the patients with SP, the highest proportion of pathological conditions are rotator cuff injury and frozen shoulder, Followed by biceps tendinitis, sub-acromial impingement syndrome, subacromial bursitis, shoulder-hand syndrome, shoulder osteoarthritis, etc. Of all the patients with SP, the most significant number of comorbidity are neck pain/cervical spondylosis, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, thyroid disease, secondly, by stroke, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases/atherosclerosis, lung disease, and osteoporosis. There are fewer cases of spinal cord injury, surgical breast cancer, anxiety/ depression, vaccination in the upper arm, hyperuricemia, and gallbladder disease.

Patients with non-traumatic shoulder pain are more likely to develop chronic shoulder pain and progress to moderate or severe pain. Older age and dominant arm are important risk factors for SP and rotator cuff disease; males are risk factors for traumatic SP; females are the risk factors for nontraumatic SP; cervical pain/cervical spondylosis, metabolic syndrome (hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, thyroid disease) , cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease/ atherosclerosis, stroke, spinal cord injury, surgical breast cancer, psychosocial factors, and vaccination are risk factors for SP; hyperuricemia, lung disease (tumor) , gallbladder disease and osteoporosis are possible or potential risk factors for SP. Early identification of SP risk factors can guide clinical intervention and thus may prevent or improve pain-related dysfunction.