Experiences of Individuals Living with Shoulder Musculoskeletal Pain According to Condition Duration: A Qualitative Synthesis

Musculoskeletal shoulder pain is a highly prevalent condition and, despite standard treatment with exercise therapy, persists in approximately 50% of cases for up to two years. Uncertainty regarding the most effective therapeutic approaches, combined with clinical assessments that are largely grounded in the biomedical model and quantitative outcome measures, often results in neglecting the subjective and multidimensional nature of pain. Recognizing the personal and lived experience of pain is essential as it represents a key factor in therapeutic success. However, the current literature lacks a comprehensive synthesis comparing individuals’ experiences across acute and chronic phases of shoulder pain, which is relevant for personalized and patient-centered interventions. This present qualitative synthesis aims to synthesize the findings of qualitative studies about the experiences of people with musculoskeletal shoulder pain according to the duration of the condition and provide a synthesis of the findings. The proposed review is a qualitative meta-synthesis conducted in accordance with the declaration Enhancing transparency in reporting the synthesis of qualitative research (ENTREQ). The protocol will be registered in the Open Science Framework (OSF) before data collection. Searches will be conducted on February 18, 2026, in MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase, Scopus, PsycINFO, CINAHL, LILACS, Scielo, and Web of Science, without year restrictions. The search strategy for this review was developed using the PICo framework: Population, Phenomena of interest, COntext, together with the boolean operators “OR” and “AND”. The Cochrane Library will also be consulted to identify relevant reviews or reference documents that may lead to qualitative articles. Furthermore, Grey literature searches will be conducted in the ETHOS and Google Scholar. Eligible studies will include qualitative studies published in peer-reviewed journals (in English, Brazilian Portuguese, or Spanish) with no restrictions on publication date. The focus will be on perceptions, experiences, and coping strategies related to musculoskeletal shoulder pain in adults aged 18 to 65 years. Eligibility applies regardless of a history of prior physiotherapy or pharmacological treatment. Studies addressing pain resulting from shoulder dislocations or instability, rotator cuff tears (partial or complete), and mixed-methods studies will also be included if the qualitative data specific to shoulder pain can be clearly extracted and are robust, according to the methodological evaluation that will be performed. Studies that do not explicitly report the age of participants or the duration of shoulder pain, or that present these data only as mean and standard deviation, will be excluded. Furthermore, studies addressing non-musculoskeletal pain (such as referred pain from neoplasms or post-stroke pain), experiences following fractures or surgical procedures in the shoulder region, adhesive capsulitis, primary cervical pain, and rheumatological diseases, such as fibromyalgia, will be excluded. Two reviewers will independently screen titles, abstracts, and full texts using Rayyan. A pre-defined form will be used to extract study characteristics (first author, year, country/setting, aim), methodological details (sample size, data collection, analysis), and qualitative findings regarding participants' experiences. Participant data, including age, sex, cultural background, main complaint, diagnosis, and duration of pain, will also be recorded. The methodological quality of included studies will be evaluated using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) 10-item checklist. Confidence in the evidence will be determined via the GRADE-CERQual approach. Data analysis will adhere to the meta-aggregation approach, presenting results as synthesized findings that summarize the derived categories.