The effects of scoliosis bracing on parent and child perception of adolescent’s quality of life

Background Improvement of quality of life is the most important reason for treating AIS, yet research on this topic is very limited with less than 2% of research on scoliosis including a QoL measurement [1]. The BrQ is a scoliosis quality of life survey that has been shown to be reliable, valid, and responsive to change in adolescents with AIS who are treated conservatively with bracing [2]. Although many studies have shown that adolescents with scoliosis have QoL indicators that are lower than their non-scoliosis counterparts, the question arises as to whether their feelings may be intensified and exaggerated during their adolescent years. One way to assess this would be to compare the adolescent assessment to the assessment by the parent. This has been done once using the SRS questionnaire in surgical patients, and discrepancies were found between parent and child [3]. This study gave the BrQ survey to adolescent patients who were wearing a brace and their parents to look at the correlation between the scores.