Evaluation of Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) Patients Who Require Bracing or Surgery Using SRS-22 Questionnaire

Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) is a 3D deformity of spine happened with unidentifiable cause at teenage. AIS causes mainly cosmetic problems with a lesser incidence of functional deficit and pain. AIS patients under severe condition, defined as the major spinal curve angle named "Cobb angle" larger than 60 degrees, requires surgical intervention to the spinal curve with implants permanently applied along the spine. The use of "brace" (bracing) to intervene the spinal curve progression is highly recommended for patients with particular clinical characteristics. However, bracing is not always a present experience apart from function restriction. Clinical recommendation requires the patients to brace over 20 hours everyday, which means the patients have to be "braced" around the clock. Patients' perception on being "braced" all day, apart from discomforts under bracing, self-image and mental health after bracing are also important psycho-social factors which have yet to be addressed. Based on our clinical experience, 1-2% of AIS patients, undergoing bracing or not (i.e. at observation stage), require surgical intervention due to rapid spinal progression in a short period of time. By definition, surgery will be arranged for patients with major spinal curve ≥50 degrees.

The health-related-quality-of-life (HRQoL) questionnaires allow clinical professionals to explore many areas of interest, including the patient's perception of his/her condition and satisfaction with provided care. Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) Outcomes Instrument has been an accepted HRQoL questionnaire to evaluate the perception of patients with spinal deformities of their status. The SRS-22 questionnaire that has been shown to have high reliability and concurrent validity and discrimination validity and responsiveness to change. SRS-22 questionnaire comprises 22 questions under 5 domains (function, pain, self-image, mental health, and satisfaction with management). Through these 22 questions, the psycho-social status can be quantified in terms of "scores" and the scores obtained at different time points can be compared. Continuous monitoring of these factors are important along the bracing period to look for patients with continuously poor psycho-social status of which bracing period is possibly last for years. Apart from AIS patients requiring bracing, surgical cases are also very important group of patients to monitor their quality of life before and after surgery, and every follow-up visit after surgery.