Swimmers frequently experience upper limb injuries, with shoulder pain being one of the most common, negatively affecting their athletic performance. Functional tests, such as the Upper Limb Rotation Test (ULRT), are widely used in clinical practice to assess these athletes. However, there is still no evidence to support the ULRT's ability to differentiate between asymptomatic swimmers and those with shoulder pain. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the known-group validity of the ULRT in this population.

To evaluate the known-group validity of the Upper Limb Rotation Test in swimmers asymptomatic and with shoulder pain.

This is a cross-sectional study that includes swimmers of both sexes, aged between 12 and 60 years, with at least 1 year of competitive practice, and a minimum of two training sessions per week. This study was approved by Ethics Research Committee. The ULRT was performed with the swimmers in a modified flexion position (on their elbows), close to a wall. They performed trunk rotation and external shoulder rotation at 90° of abduction and external rotation, touching a tape on the wall as quickly as possible for 15 seconds. The athletes performed three trials, and the mean was considered for the analysis. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to assess the normality of distributions for continuous data, which presented normal distribution. For the known group validity, the ULRT score of the asymptomatic group and those with shoulder pain was compared using an independent samples t-test. The data were analyzed with SPSS software version 23.0.

A total of 50 athletes participated in the study, with 29 (58%) from the asymptomatic group and 21 (42%) from the group with shoulder pain, with a mean age of 30.46 ± 14.27 years, and 27 (54%) were male. For the validity of known groups, there was no statistically significant difference between the asymptomatic group and the group with pain (mean difference: 2.72, 95% CI: -5.87, 0.42, p = 0.08).

The results of this study indicate that the ULRT is unable to differentiate swimmers with shoulder pain from asymptomatic swimmers.

These findings can assist clinicians in the assessment and management of shoulder pain in swimmers, guiding the selection of more effective assessment tools to identify functional restrictions associated with shoulder pain in this population.