Shoulder pain and dysfunction in 150 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.

OBJECTIVE To study the prevalence of shoulder pain and dysfunction in patients from Southern Brazil with diabetes mellitus (DM) and to evaluate the association of pain and dysfunction with diabetes control and epidemiological factors. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We studied 150 patients with type 2 DM for pain and shoulder dysfunction with the UCLA-m (modified University of California at Los Angeles Shoulder Rating Scale); for epidemiological and treatment data, values of Hb A(1C) and plasma glucose were analyzed. RESULTS Pain was present in 63.4%, and dysfunction in 53.4% of the studied sample; 26.6% of the patients rated shoulder performance as bad. No association was found between Hb A(1C) or plasma glucose and joint function, except for active flexion of the shoulder and fasting glucose (p = 0.026). Women had worse shoulder performance (p = 0.0043), as did elderly patients (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Shoulder pain and dysfunction is highly prevalent in patients with type 2 diabetes; these disorders affect more women and the elderly.