Group-based exercise, individually supervised exercise and home-based exercise have similar clinical effects and cost-effectiveness in people with subacromial pain: a randomised trial

Question: What are the relative effects of group-based exercise, individual exercise and home-based exercise on clinical outcomes and costs in patients with subacromial pain? Design: Multicentre, three-arm, randomised controlled trial with concealed allocation and intention-to-treat analysis. Participants: A total of 208 patients referred to municipal rehabilitation for management of subacromial pain in six municipalities in the Central Denmark Region. Interventions: Patients were randomly allocated to group-based exercise rehabilitation (GE), individual exercise rehabilitation (IE) or home exercise rehabilitation (HE) for a period of 8 weeks. Outcome measures: The primary outcome measure was the shortened version of the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand questionnaire (Quick-DASH). The secondary outcome measures included the EQ-5D-5L index, pain intensity, fear avoidance, psychological wellbeing, and the participant's perception of improvement and satisfaction. Healthcare and productivity costs were extracted from national health and social registers. Results: There was no important between-group difference in Quick-DASH scores at 6 months: adjusted mean differences GE minus IE 22 (95% CI 29 to 5), GE minus HE 22 (95% CI 29 to 5) and HE minus IE 1 (95% CI -6 to 7). The estimates of the between-group differences were able to exclude any clinically important differences in the three regimens' effects on health benefits according to the EQ-5D-5L index and other secondary outcomes. The total average costs were highest for the IE group and lowest for the HE, but not statistically different across groups. Conclusion: In people with subacromial pain, group-based exercise, individually supervised exercise and home-based supervised exercise regimens have similar benefits. The home exercise intervention was associated with lowest costs. (C) 2021 Australian Physiotherapy Association. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

This study compared the effects of group-based exercise, individual exercise, and home exercise on patients with subacromial pain. The results showed that there were no significant differences in health benefits among the three regimens, but the home exercise intervention was associated with the lowest costs.