The relationship between quality of life and compliance to a brace protocol in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis: a comparative study

BACKGROUND: Corrective bracing for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) has favourable outcomes when patients are compliant. However, bracing may be a stressful and traumatic experience and compliance with a bracing protocol is likely to be dependent upon patients' physical, emotional and social wellbeing. The Brace Questionnaire (BrQ), a recently-developed, condition-specific tool to measure quality of life (QOL) has enabled clinicians to study relationships between QOL and compliance. METHODS: The BrQ was administered to 31 AIS patients after a minimum of 1 year of wearing a brace. Subjects were 13–16 year old South African girls with Cobb angles of 25–40 degrees. Participants were divided into two groups according to their level of compliance with the bracing protocol. Brace Questionnaire sub- and total scores were compared between the two groups using the t-test for comparison of means. RESULTS: Twenty participants were classified as compliant and 11 as non-compliant. Mean total BrQ scores (expressed as a percentage) were 83.7 for the compliant group and 64.4 for the non-compliant group (p < 0.001), and on analysis of the 8 domains that make up the BrQ, the compliant group scored significantly higher in the 6 domains that measured vitality and social, emotional and physical functioning. CONCLUSION: Poor compliance with a brace protocol is associated with poorer QOL, with non-compliant patients lacking vitality and functioning poorly physically, emotionally and socially. Quality of life for adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis may relate more to psychosocial coping mechanisms than to physical deformity and its consequences. It is important to establish whether remedial programmes are capable of addressing personal, group and family issues, improving QOL and promoting compliance.