This is not really the same thing, but you could RUN the program you are worried about NO-ERROR and then see if ERROR-STATUS:GET-NUMBER(1) equals '392' (the error# for a shared variable problem).
Then you could run another program that contains DEFINE NEW GLOBAL SHARED, and then try the first one again (though, that would be a strange way of doing things).
IIRC, this error is only raised if the target program *uses* (eg. DISPLAY, ASSIGN etc.) the variable in question. Merely DEFINEing it won't trigger an error (I think).