Social acceptability of treatments for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: a cross-sectional study

Design. Cross-sectional study. Setting. Secondary schools in 4 northern Italian regions. Participants. Parents of children in the age group at risk of and not affected by scoliosis (Pre-test group = 100, Study group = 3,162). Interventions. Questionnaire: five specific and evidence-based questions regarding scoliosis treatment options and a socio-demographic section. Methodology. "Role-playing" in which it was required to normal people to answer what they would have chosen if they had been in the situation proposed. Main outcome measures. Perception of acceptability of treatments for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in the general population (social acceptability)The families support the use of screening (94.8%) at school, immediate bracing (76.4%) for scoliosis with a 60% risk of progression, but also therapeutic exercises (86.9%) in cases with a 25% risk of progression.There is a growing tendency to consider not only the efficacy, effectiveness and efficiency of treatments, but also their acceptability. This patient-centred aspect is especially more important in areas (like adolescent idiopathic scoliosis) in which there is some evidence on the efficacy of treatments, but not strong and definitive (RCTs). Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis treatments should thus be carefully considered also in the light of their social acceptability.Our everyday practice seems to suggest that people prefer, for their children with scoliosis, prevention instead of a "wait and see" approach, even if this prevention of progression implies efforts, expenses, time, and obviously a possible failure. We planned a study to verify this hypothesis.Children are our future, and therapeutic decisions should reflect this fact: children are not young adults and prevention should be a very important aspect of their care [1].The long-term natural history of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) has recently been described [2,3] : patients with severe curves have a greater incidence of back pain than n