THURSDAY, May 22, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Adults with idiopathic scoliosis have a higher prevalence of back problems, compared to individuals without scoliosis, according to a study published in the May 15 issue of Spine.
Anna Grauers, M.D., from Sundsvall and Harnosand County Hospital in Sweden, and colleagues evaluated survey results from 1,069 individuals with idiopathic scoliosis (diagnosed between ages 4 and 20 years) and 158 individuals without scoliosis (all aged 20 to 65 years).
The researchers found that 374 scoliosis patients were untreated, while 451 had been brace treated and 244 were surgically treated. In the individuals with scoliosis, the mean prevalence of back problems was 64 percent, compared to 29 percent in the individuals without scoliosis (P < 0.001). Sixty-nine percent of the untreated individuals with scoliosis reported back problems, as did 61 percent of the brace treated and 64 percent of the surgically treated (P = 0.06). There were no significant differences in the prevalence of back problems between females and males with scoliosis, or individuals with juvenile and adolescent scoliosis (P = 0.10 and 0.23, respectively).
"Adults with idiopathic scoliosis have a higher prevalence of back problems than individuals without scoliosis," the authors write. "Treatment, sex, and juvenile or adolescent onset of diagnosis was not related to the prevalence of back problems in adulthood."
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