Background Physical therapists regularly make decisions regarding intervention intensity based upon pathoanatomy, symptom irritability, and impairment identification, but the reliability and validity of classifying patients by symptom irritability is unknown.~Purpose Examine the reliability and use of the shoulder symptom irritability classification system for the purposes of determining an appropriate treatment intensity.~Design Prospective repeated-measures single-blinded design to determine reliability and a cross-sectional design will be utilized to aid in determining construct validity.~Methods Twenty-five (25) raters will be trained to make paired ratings in 90 subjects with primary complaints of shoulder pain. Raters will record the shoulder symptom irritability level and also select the appropriate intervention intensities for the subjects. Raters will also be asked to choose anticipated interventions for subjects.~Data Analysis Prevalence-adjusted, bias-adjusted Kappa for ordinal scales (PABAK-OS) will be the primary measure of reliability. Dependent upon the distribution of the data, other forms of Kappa may be utilized to analyze the data most appropriately. To determine differences in reliability between groups with and without clinical specialization, an independent t test will be utilized with α = 0.05. Lastly, analysis of variance with post-hoc analysis will be used to compare functional disability across different levels of irritability.~Significance This study addresses key gaps in the understanding of symptom irritability and how it relates to clinical decision making. It is expected that symptom irritability should logically drive intervention selection and intensity of rehabilitation interventions.
The purpose of this study is to examine the reliability and use of the shoulder symptom irritability classification system for the purposes of determining an appropriate treatment intensity to better help people with shoulder pain.