• Laura Rainoldi, Fabio Zaina, Jorge H Villafañe, Sabrina Donzelli, and Stefano Negrini.
• Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Core in Care Association, Piazza Borromeo 14, 20123 Milan, Italy; Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Saluta San Raffaele University, Via Olgettina 58, 20132 Milan, Italy.
• Spine J. 2015 Apr 1;15(4):662-7.

Background ContextThe Scoliosis Research Society 22 Questionnaire (SRS-22) has shown to worsen with increasing deformity in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). However, all the studies have been performed on patients who have already been diagnosed and in relatively small samples.PurposeThe purposes of this study were to evaluate a large sample of consecutive patients before diagnosis to develop reference values and check the discriminative validity and correlation with deformity of the SRS-22.Study Design/SettingThis is a cross-sectional study, with patients referred to a specialized outpatient scoliosis rehabilitation institute.Patient SampleThe recruited subjects were 1,205 consecutive adolescents, 75% females (13.7±1.9 years), before their first scoliosis evaluation. Five subgroups were 0°-10° Cobb (normal) and 11° to 20°, 21° to 30°, 31° to 40°, and greater than 40° (AIS).Outcome MeasuresThe outcome measure is based on the SRS-22.MethodsThe SRS-22 was used to examine the differences between the domains of the five subgroups and total scores, and it was correlated with Cobb degrees and curve location. We used one-way analysis of variance and Spearman rho test.ResultsApart from the self-image domain in both genders and all subgroups, all other scores were greater than 4 points with small standard deviations. Females showed significant differences among groups for all domains and total score (p<.05). In males, function, pain, and mental health did not show statistically significant differences among groups (p>.1). All differences found were less than the minimally clinically significant change (0.5 points). The correlations with the severity of deformity measures were very low (rs<0.289).ConclusionsAccording to our results, deformity is apparently not a real issue for AIS before diagnosis made, treatment planned, and/or specialists interfere with their everyday life. Scoliosis Research Society 22 Questionnaire demonstrated some discriminative validity between small and large curves, but the differences found were small.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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