Epidemiology of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in students of the public schools in Goiânia-GO.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the prevalence of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in school children from 10 to 14 years in public schools in Goiânia, GO, Brazil.


METHODS
In a cross-sectional study, 476 students were randomly selected from 5 public schools, from a total of 33,343 students distributed in 162 schools. These subjects received the informed consent prior, which was returned after being signed by parents on physical examination day. We evaluated the symmetry of the shoulders, the scapulae, the triangle-cut, the hip evenness and the Adams test. In suspected cases, students were referred to panoramic radiographs of the spine.


RESULTS
418 students participated in the study (adjusted sampling error of 3.2%). Of this total, 31 students were suspected of scoliosis (17 males and 14 females). Twenty-eight students took radiographs, of which 18 were diagnosed with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (11 female and 7 male), determining the prevalence of 4.3%. The chi-square test suggested no statistical difference in prevalence between the sexes. One student had congenital scoliosis.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in the public schools of Goiânia is 4.3%. Level of Evidence III, Study of Nonconsecutive Patients.
School of Medicine of PUC Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil.
Fabiano Inácio
FI
de Souza
School of Medicine of PUC Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil.
Rodrigo Borges
RB
Di Ferreira
Santa Casa de Misericordia de Goiânia, GO, Brazil.
Daniel
D
Labres
Santa Casa de Misericordia de Goiânia, GO, Brazil.
Rafael
R
Elias
School of Medicine of PUC Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil.
Ana Patrícia Miranda
AP
de Sousa
School of Medicine of PUC Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil.
Rafaela Ernesto
RE
Pereira
Epidemiology; Public health; Scoliosis