1 Before you use it
What it is
The default shoulder PROM and the one to teach first. Thirteen items in two subscales — 5 pain items and 8 disability items — covering washing hair, washing your back, putting on a shirt, reaching a high shelf, carrying, lifting.
When to reach for it
Baseline and reassessment on every shoulder. Five minutes.
Pair it with SANE if you want a single trackable number the patient can give you in ten seconds at every subsequent visit.
Patterns it serves · 8
2 Giving it
Scoring
Each item 0–10. Report the pain subscale, the disability subscale and the total, each as a percentage.
Items that genuinely don't apply are omitted and the score pro-rated — note when you've done that.
What it doesn’t measure
Instability, apprehension or fear of the movement. For instability use WOSI. For an overhead athlete use KJOC — SPADI's items are daily-living tasks and a thrower will ceiling out on them while still unable to compete.
Repeat it
3 Reading the score
Interpreting it
Higher means worse. Interpret change against baseline.
The two subscales are the clinical information. Pain-dominant with preserved function is an early rotator-cuff-related picture; disability-dominant with modest pain is a stiffness or capsular picture. Same total, different plan.
Is the change real?
On placement
Rotator cuff-related shoulder pain, 6 weeks in. SPADI total 58% at intake, 44% today; pain 64 → 42, disability 54 → 45.
Read it as 14 points down. Over the 8–13-point MCID but under the 18-point MDC (both measured in shoulder complaints) — meaningful in size, not yet clear of measurement error. Pain-led: pain fell 22, disability 9.
Do pain-dominant with preserved function is the early cuff-related picture; keep the loading and re-score at 12 weeks. Note any pro-rated item.
Student trap. Using SPADI on a thrower. They'll score near-perfect on washing their hair and still be unable to pitch.
Official source: null. We don't host the form.
This is a learning tool. It does not diagnose patients and does not replace your clinical educator.
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