1000 Section - Randomized controlled trial of the 6-month digital-based physiotherapeutic specific scoliosis exercise for patients with idiopathic scoliosis

Idiopathic scoliosis (IS) is a complicated three-dimensional spinal deformity of unknown etiology. Physiotherapeutic specific scoliosis exercise (PSSE) is the important conservative treatment for IS patients with skeletal immaturity according to the guidelines of scoliosis. However, the effctiveness of the conventional PSSE model was limited due to the lack of medical resources and geographical, time and financial constraints.


Design:

The randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to investigate the clinical outcomes of IS patients with skeletal immaturity following the digital-based intervention  versus the conventional physiotherapy.


Results:

Our results demonstrate that the digital care group (DCG) have the higher engagement and lower dropout rate than the conventional intervention group (CIG) (DCG: 10.9% (7/64) and CIG: 15.6% (10/64)). Both intervention groups experienced significant improvements in the improvement of the Cobb angle (the primary outcome), and the outcome of DCG was superior than the CIG in change from baseline (-4.23, 95% CI: -6.08, -2.39, P <.001) or the program-end outcome (-4.73, 95%CI: -7.03, -2.44, P <.001). Besides, the population of individuals with the improvement of the Cobb angle exceeding 5 degree was higher in the DCG (DCG: 49/64 (86.0%) versus CIG: 29/64  (45.3%), P =.001). For secondary, the improvement of the pelvic obliquity angle during the gait cycle in the DCG was better than the CIG but no significant difference between two groups was found for the angle of trunk rotation (ATR).


Conclusion:

This RCT demonstrated that the effectiveness of the fully-remote and digital-based PSSE training, superior than the conventional PSSE model, can reduce the barrier to access while ensuring the quailty.