title: Patients with mild scoliosis have good prognosis.
abstract: Patients with late-onset idiopathic scoliosis have only a modest increase in health problems compared with patients without scoliosis. Clinicians should keep this in mind when providing health education and offer reassurance and watchful waiting to patients with small curves at skeletal maturity. More broadly, whether to screen for scoliosis depends on the performance of the screening test as well as evidence of whether treatment alters the natural history of scoliosis. The US Preventive Services Task Force has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to recommend routine screening.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gilmer-Scott
authors.forename: Warren
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Newton