Children's and parents' perspectives of health-related quality of life in newly diagnosed adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

The aim of this study is to compare child and parent perceptions of health-related quality of life in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis. The scoliosis-specific SRS-22 and the generic KIDSCREEN-52 were administered to newly diagnosed patients and the latter also to a parent. Strong correlations (r > 0.5, p < 0.001) were revealed between conceptually similar dimensions of the instruments. Parents' assessments of their child's HRQoL were generally higher than the children/adolescents; however score differences were small and insignificant. The significance of parents' perceptions was also confirmed with OLS regressions. In conclusion, HRQoL is thoroughly investigated when both generic and disease-specific instruments are used.