The influence of body image on surgical decisions in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the severity of deformities in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis contributes to patients’ decision regarding whether to undergo an operation.METHODS:We evaluated body image factors in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients. We evaluated the magnitude of the main scoliotic curve, gibbosity (magnitude and location), shoulder height asymmetry and patient’s age. We analyzed the correlation of these data with the number of years the patient was willing to trade for surgery, as measured by the time-trade-off method.RESULTS:A total of 52 patients were studied. We did not find a correlation between any of the parameters that were studied and the number of years that the patient would trade for the surgery.CONCLUSIONS:The magnitude of body deformities in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis does not interfere with the decision to undertake surgical treatment.

Exploring the Issues of Valuing Child and Adolescent Health States Using a Mixed Sample of Adolescents and Adults

“…There are concerns around whether it is acceptable and appropriate to administer preference elicitation tasks due to the possibility that consideration of dead or trading between quality of life and quantity of life may cause upset or distress for adolescents [41]. The existence of TTO studies that have been undertaken with adolescents using preference elicitation tasks for both their own health and/or for hypothetical health states that involve consideration of being dead (potentially framed as trading of years left to live) [42][43][44][45][46] suggests that these tasks may be acceptable and appropriate. However, the authors are not aware of any studies designed to explicitly test this.…”