Exercise interventions for rotator cuff-related shoulder pain in middle-aged and older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Paulino Vico-Rodríguez, Agustín Aibar-Almazán, Fidel Hita-Contreras, María Auxiliadora Márquez-Apolinario, Julia Gámez-Iruela, Marta Cano-Orihuela, Yolanda Castellote-Caballero · 2026
Read Exercise interventions for rotator cuff-related shoulder pain in middle-aged and older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis by Paulino Vico-Rodríguez, Agustín Aibar-Almazán, Fidel Hita-Contreras, María Auxiliadora Márquez-Apolinario, Julia Gámez-Iruela, Marta Cano-Orihuela, Yolanda Castellote-Caballero (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13471655.txt.
Description
Vico-Rodríguez and co-authors pooled randomized trials of exercise therapy for shoulder pain from rotator cuff trouble in middle-aged and older adults. Their 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis covered 21 trials with 1,152 participants, comparing strengthening, stretching, and stabilization programs against usual care or add-on treatments over the past decade.
Exercise significantly improved pain, daily function, and range of motion across the pooled analyses, though the overall effect size was small. Strength gains were the exception: they came in smaller and missed statistical significance, with an effect of g 0.229 at p 0.085 in the pooled estimate. Studies disagreed heavily with each other, with heterogeneity of I² 95.96% across outcomes, which the authors attribute to differing programs and measures. Rotator cuff problems drive up to 70% of shoulder pain diagnoses.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Paulino Vico-Rodríguez, Agustín Aibar-Almazán, Fidel Hita-Contreras, María Auxiliadora Márquez-Apolinario, Julia Gámez-Iruela, Marta Cano-Orihuela, Yolanda Castellote-Caballero |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 65 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |